The Lord of Life - Discontinued
by Berial
Summary: Another Story where Harry snaps after the DoM! He is going to take the wizarding world by storm! Cower Dumbledore and Voldemort, you fools fighting for light and dark! A new player joins the game - on his own rules! Its my first Story :3 so please have mercy! Features Dark!Harry Powerful!Harry Confident!Harry Little Ron-bashing, im trying to keep it to a minimum. Rated M for safety
1. Prolog

**The Lord of Life**

 **AN:**

Heeeey! Im trying myself at the challenge a story provides! Its my first one, so reviews would be greatly appreciated! :D I want to improve myself – english isnt my main language. Im gonna read all the pointers, tips and opinions I may get! (that does not include mindless flame) Im trying to make chapters with 8 – 10k words. Harry isnt going to be unbeatable, neither is he going to run amok and kill everything he can see.

 **Disclaimer** : I dont own Harry Potter, neither do I make money with this story. I only own my ideas - even tough im pretty sure that somebody already had them at least one time...

 **Prolog**

Harry was on his small bed in Privet Drive with his emotions in chaos. Anger, sadness, pity even hatred was flying and cursing trough his body. _Why me? Why always me? What have I done in a past life to deserve something like this?! Sirius is dead - of course he is! He was close to me after all. And we just could not let him live because of this huh? If there is a God, he is a cruel bastard! DO YOU HEAR ME? FUCK YOU!_ He could still feel the phantom pain, the agony as Voldemort possesed him.

- **Flashback** -

He could hear himself speaking with two voices: "Kill the boy, Dumbledore, when death means nothing. Do it!" The pain was too much, it was his whole beeing, his whole existence. He could only see shadows and some flickering stars. But after something that felt like hours of agony - but only a minute in reality - there came darkness. The last thing the boy heard was a bestial scream, sounding a little bit like a high pinched "NOOOOOO!" and then nothingness claimed him.

- **Flashback End** -

Since then, there was a terrible weakness in his bones. He could swear he died there! The boy felt drained and powerless; physically and emotionally - especially after hearing a prophercy, no THE prophercy! The one that fucked his whole life up!

 _And of course the old Bastard had to tell me AFTER this whole mess, after it was too late... After I killed Sirius! The green-eyed Wizard was fed up with the scheming, the strings from the shadows._ _If Dumbledore just had talked to me! With all the information i would have handled differently! And of course he had to go back to this hell hole. "Blood Wards? Bullshit! This was never my home, it is a godforsaken prison!"_

They were starving him _again_. He was so hungry! That fact confused him a little bit - normally he was used to eating nearly to nothing in this _building_ and of course he was hungry the last years, but never like this. "Maybe its because of the latest shit that happened. But normally guilt suppresses hunger?", mumured Harry. Was he not even in THIS aspect normal? In the night he would sneak out and steal something from the kitchen - his uncle was at least intimidated enough by the Order to not close the locks at the door, he feared a suprise-visit from the _freaks_. "Maybe eating something from Dudley will take my mind of things a little bit."

Stealing food in this house was way too easy. Just going slowy downstairs, avoiding the plank in the middle of the floor, opening the kitchendoor and voila! Harry was able to take enough food to his room to live for the rest of the summer from it - if you dont count the fact that it will rot after some time. Normally he would never be able to eat tons like this, but he felt so _hungry_. And it was obviously no normal starvation which was plaguing him, because he was able to eat _evryhting_ in a span of four hours. And _still_ felt hungry! "What is wrong with me this time? Nobody can eat this much food at once! And to be still hungry after this should be impossible!" But it was too late to go stealing again. _Vernon will definetly wake me up early and force me to work for them ._

And of course he was right, the first thing in the morning was a thundering

"BOY! GET YOUR ASS DOWNSTAIRS AND MAKE BREAKFAST!"

"Fat son-of-a-bitch!", grumbled the lonely wizard, stood up and dressed. After that, he rushed downstairs, to avoid futher shouting and preventing a hit to the head from the fat whalruss. "There you are you useless freak! Make us food!"

"Yeah, good morning to you too...". But that was not suprising, of course Harry would have to do chores again... and of course he would prepare all the meals, but only get some leftovers - if he was lucky. _At least im not anymore in the fucking cupboard under the stairs._ Ah, the small things in life...

Normally Harry found a little bit enjoiment in cooking - they would let him be so he could finish faster - but this time it was torture.

 _Sooo hungry... After cooking everything, he was banned in his room again, which was at least better then working in the freaking garden - wihtout protections. Still, the boy wasnt able to be really happy about it. He had to find a explanation for his hunger, so he could find a solution. He feared deep in the Pit of his stomach that he would die. It had to be magical, but he was surrounded with Muggles! Of course he wasnt allowed to send owls - no Hermione then - and he was pretty sure that a decease like this wasnt in the standart schoolbooks. He would die because he was seperated from his world._ _So close and still so far away..._

"BOY! MAKE DINNER!"

 _And here we go again._ With a sigh, Harry answered: "Yes uncle Vernon, Im coming." This time was even _worse_! _Im feeling so weak..._

The three Dursleys were sitting at the table, greedy eyes followed his every movement as he brought the food. Harry was disgusted to call them his relatives, hell, he felt that calling them "people" would go too far. They were a mockery for every Human beeing, with their fat Faces - Vernon and Dudley - or their skeletal body - his aunt Petunia. But this time something was different.

 _Are they... glowing? What sick shit is now happening? I wonder if i could eat them... Wait what?! What is wrong with me? A normal human beeing can not use "eat" and "Dursleys" in the same sentence! Not even in the same Dialog! Deeply disturbed he rushed upstairs, without waiting for his dimissial._

"BOY! WHO ALLOWED YOU TO JUST LEAVE?! YOU WILL COME BACK AND CLEAN UP!" Harry ignored the whalruss in favor of slamming his head against the wall.

"What! Is! Wrong! With! Me!?" Every word was followed with a deep knock.

"BOY! DID YOU HEAR ME?"

"SHUT UP!", was the shouted response. _Did I just shouted at Vernon? OH SHIT._

 _"WHAT WAS THAT YOU FREAK?"_

"Nothing! I said nothing!"

"THAT DIDNT SOUND LIKE NOTHING!"

 _Please be too hungry to come up, PLEASE._ He could hear thundering footsteps, marching the stairs up _. "SHIT!"_

Panic filled the Wizard. He feared the hits with the belt, even more so because of his actual weakness. He had to flee - the windows had no bars since his escape with the twins - but before he could make more than two stumbled steps the door was kicked open.

"FREAK!" there stand Vernon Dursley, in all his fat, deformed, ragefilled Glory.

 _At least he has no belt. The Adult made the last meters with suprisingly speed and crashed with all his might against the scrawny Teenager. "I THINK I SHOULD TEACH YOU A LESSON!" All of the air got pressed out of Harrys body as a meaty hand found its way into his stomach._

"Ummpfh!" As the pain registered and the boy doubled over, an powerful uppercut connected with his chin. In this moment, as stars made out his vision, something in Harry snapped. If Vernon would have been a little bit more observative, he could have saved himself. But he still was savoring the trashing of the - formerly - defenceless boy with a cruel grin.

"Not so arrogant, are we now?" And then it happened. The boy looked up from his position on the ground, emerald eyes glowed with ungodly power.

 **"Are u finished?"**

"Wha- What are you doing freak? You cant do Magic out of school!", spluttered Vernon, who was stumbling backwards, trying to create more distance between them **.**

 **"Does it look like I care** _ **Uncle**_ **?"** With a flick of his hand, the door swang shut and the locks on the _outside_ made an audible clank as the locked. As the boy stood slowy up, Vernon hit the door full of panic.

"OPEN THE DOOR! BOY? BOY! HELP ME! PROTECT ME AGAINST THE FREAK!" A dark chuckle was heard as Vernon blicked back, white as a sheet **.**

 **"Even if they hear you - which they wont - how do you think should they help you? They cant come in."**

"GO AWAY! I CALL THE POLICE! GO AWAY!"

 **"Aww, the police? And** _ **how**_ **, my dear dear uncle? Do you think you can live on and tell the story?"**

"YOU DONT HAVE THE GUTS TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS!", Vernon shouted on the top of his lungs, but he obviously didnt believe himself, his voice was laced with fear. **"Sure? Now hold still you fat fuck."**

Darkness seeped out of Harrys skin and rushed like a dark mist directly to Vernon. The panic filled cries and pleads got ignored, as the mist completly surrounded his prey. You could not see a speck of the human in it, and the cries first got dull, then more silent until there was nothing to hear except the lowly wishpern of the moving mist. His work done, the mist rushed back to his master, who opened his mouth and took a deep breath. It flowed trough mouth and nose like water until there was no more left.

 **"Ahh, so much better. Now to the insects downstairs"** , said the wizard and went to the door. One tap with his finger reduced it to splinters. The way passable, Harry went downstairs, a happy tune on his lips. As he came trough the kitchendoor, he came face to face with the suprised looks of his other two _blood relatives_.

"What are you doing here boy?", spat his aunt, "and where is my Husband?" Dudley ingored the commotion in favor of eating everything else on the table.

 **"My dear aunt, uncle Vernon got some urgent matter to take care of. But he gave me the possibility to send you to him."** Hearing the dark and distorted voice of her personal House-Elf, Petunia snapped her head so fast back, it looked like he punched her. This fast action was finally able to change Dudleys focus on his favourite prey **.**

"Hey freak! Dont disturb us at dinner!" **"Fear not, it will be over fast."**

"What have you done? WHERE IS VERNON?"

 **"As I already said: you will meet him."**

If somebody would have been paying attention to the happenings in Privet Drive Nr.4, they would have been able to hear some muffeled screams and a satisfied laugh. But Fletcher was on Duty, passed out under his invisibillity-cloak in the bushes.

So everything went undetected.


	2. Chapter 1

**Lord of Life**

 **An:** Here is the first real chapter :D nothing much to say, except that I re-read it and fixed all of the Errors (hopefully)

 **Disclaimer:** Im not going to write it every chapter, same as last time...

 **Chapter 1**

"Oww, my head. What happened here?", moaned the boy as he woke up... in the kitchen?! "Why am I here? Are they still sleeping? Its so silent." But if you dont count the headache, he felt great! Way greater than ever! _The hunger is gone._ He could see his glasses on the ground, and not on his nose - clearly!

"Why is my eyesight fixed? Not that I complain.", grumbled the teen. "Where is everybody?"As Harry blicked up from the floor, he gave a scream full of terror. There, directly in front of him, on her usual seat was his Aunt. But there stopped the usual. She was hunched over, and blicked with soulless eyes on the ground - directly to Harry. She was pale as a ghost, even the colours of her clothes lookes drained. Her face was a pure example of a moment of terror: Eyes and mouth wide open, panic and fear nested in every wrinkle, a picture of a terrified human. His cousin wasnt much better, but even in death he was too fat for more than one expression. But he looked a litle bit constricted, his face was haggard and wrinkled, not anymore the round and extremly full and fat one he got in life. To say that Harry was disturbed was an understatement. He crawled in the farest corner of the room, but wasnt able to look away.

 _What happened here? Who has done this?_ His eyes widened in horror as the memories of the past hours bubbled to the surface. He felt sick, tried to hold it in but to no use. He vomitted on the floor. "What kind of sick creature am I?", whispered he. His emotions ran high again, self-hate, disgust were the strongest ones. But then a new one came to his mind: Worry. _The order! What if they see this? Why are they not here yet? Do they wait outside?_ Paranoid he blicked out of the window. Nothing.

"Could they be there, just with invisible-cloaks? No, Dumbledore would try to talk to me, he wants the prophercy fullfilled. Am I still undetected? How could this be possible?" The urgency of the matter made his head clear from the mixture of emotions - at least temporaly. "What could possible lead to such a bad observation?" then it hit him: "Fletcher! Of course! It is the watch of this useless scumbag! It has to be!" What was his biggest concern? Staying out of the grasp of the potentional dangerous Groups: The Order and the Ministry. _And of course away from Voldemort._ He had to use this chance, it could be his only one. But he had to get away without a trace of the murder. "A fire. I will burn the house down. But I have to safe my belongings first - and i cant use magic with my wand..." What should he do? Taking the car was out of question. He couldnt drive and it would definetly be traced by the muggle-police. And the thing worst than getting sacked by the Aurors would be to decay in a muggle prison. He feared to be complety seperated from the magical world. The ministry would let him be, as long as Voldemort was still alive - Dumbledore would see to it. The Muggles wouldnt. He got an idea. Not a very bright one, but he could not be very picky at the moment. He gestured with his arms.

"Dobby?" Nothing happened. He had to look so stupid right now; standing in a kitchen with the contents of his stomach on the floor and two bodys at the table, wiggeling his arms like a braindead moron. "Of _course_ nothing happened. Its ME we are talking about", grumbled the boy angry. "Is Master Harry Sir angry?" "WHAT THE FUCK" Harry jumped in the air like frog. Dobby teleported _behind_ the young wizard and shocked the hell out of him. "Dobby... Never... Ever... Teleport... Behind me... Again!", pressed Harry out, hands clutched over his heart. Of course the hyperactive Elf took the whole situation way too serious. His big Eyes filled with tears and he tored at his ears. "Me is so sorry Master Harry Sir! Me will shut his ears in the ofen again!" Dobby sprinteted to the ofen. "STOP! I was just suprised, nothing more! Dot punish yourself because you shocked me!" The Elf started bawling and hugged Harrys leg. "Master Harry Sir is so kind to Dobby!" "Yeah, yeah, now listen please." "Dobby listen!" "I have a problem Dobby, and only you can help me." "Master Harry Sir is so kind! Me will..." "Relax Dobby!" "Dobby relax!".

This guy was waaay to crazy. He was so focused on Harry that he not even noticed the two bodys, and he just sprinteted trough to vormit. "Are you still a free Elf?" "Dobby is Harry Potter Sir!" _Here goes nothing_. "Do you wish to work for me?" The Elf begun tearing up again. "The great Master Harry Sir would let me work for him? You are soooooo kind!" "Do you want? Yes or No?" "Dobby would be honored!" "Good. Do we have to bond for that?" "Master Harry Sir would let Dobby bond with himself?" The Elf hugged the boys leg - again. "How do we bond?" "Me will pledge loyality to you Master Harry Sir and you accept it!" "I just have to say "yes"?" "Yes Master Harry Sir! Me, Dobby, free Elf, swear on my life and magic, that I will serve my Master, fullfilling his wishes, with all the forces that I may direct and own!" The boy could _feel_ the old magic in the air. This was the real deal, no trickery or something like that. Harry took a deep breath. "So mote it be." There was a flash and the magic disappeared in the two individuals. "Its done?" "Yes Master Harry Sir." "Then my first orders are the following: Dont punish yourself. Always talk with me when there is something not completly clear! You are no slave, you are my friend. Tell nobody about us, as long as I havent allowed it. We have to keep this whole night and our bond a secret. And stop calling me Master Harry Sir. Just Harry is fine." "But Master Harry Sir..." "No buts! These are my orders!" "Yes Master... äh Si... Harry!" "We have to train that a little I think.", Harry said with a laugh. "Now, let me tell you something: Do you see the bodys behind you?" The Elf looked to the table.

"Did somebody attack you Mast... Harry?", came the schocked reply, as the elf studied the bodys with wide eyes. _If it would be so easy._ "No, but thats the right direction. I will tell you what happened, but not here." "You want to flee Harry?" "I have to. The Blood Wards - if there ever were some - are now definetly destroyed. I want that you search for a hotel - muggle please - and if you found a good one come back." "Me will immediatly start searching." With a pop the elf was gone. "Ok, so far so good. Now I need to open the basement and I some money would be nice too." The money was easily accessed - he just had too plunder the cookiejar and Vernons purse. It wasnt that much, but definetly enough to survive some days. After that, he searched the key for the cupboard, but found none. "Where could it be? Not in Vernons pockets or in his purse... maybe they threw it away? Definetly a possibility." Instead of searching all night long - time was limited - he picked one of the big kitchen-knifes and chopped the wooden support in small pieces. There it was: All his wonderful magical stuff. "Now I just have to wait for Dobby." "Master called?" "Ah, there you are. Stop calling me Master... Nevermind, did you found something?" "Me found small but clean hotel. But its a little bit far away..." "Can you teleport me and my stuff there? Without beeing seen of course?" "Me can without problems Master Harry." "Good." Satisfied, Harry looked trough all rooms for something valuable to take. He found nothing good and pocketed only a Butterlfy, owned by his dear cousin - just in case. "Dobby, can you make fire?" "Dobby can, but no big one. Im sorry Master Harry." "Multiple small ones then?" "Me can. Does Master Harry wish to use the fireplace?" "No. Dobby here is the plan, listen carefully: I want you to teleport me and my stuff to this hotel. After that, come back and make as much small fires in the house as you can. Focus on the bodys okay? Upstairs is one too. Then wait for, lets say ten minutes. After that teleport back to me. Please dont let youself be seen. Can you do that?" The Elf nodded his head with great force up and down. "Dobby can do this for you Master Harry Sir." "Then, lets begin."

* * *

The following hours were very uncomplicated; the girl at the counter didnt ask too many questions as long as Harry paid beforehand and even ignored the fact that he got an owlcage (he told Hedwig to hunt for the night) and just walked out of an dead end without going in. Dobby popped in some minutes later and told about his success in burning down the house, and with it all traces.

Harrys room wasnt something special: A door leading too a bathroom, a stationary table with three chairs, a small closet - which wasnt even filled completly, after all he got not many belongings - and a small nightstand next to an even smaller bed. After that, he told Dobby to go back to hogwarts ("But try to fish for information."). All necessary things done, he threw himself on his bed and calmed down after this whole mess - a mistake. Regret bombarded him anew, deep from his stomach. He looked at his shaking hands, whispering to himself. "What have I done? What have I done? I _killed_ them! In cold blood! And I found _satisfaction_ doing it! What kind of sick fuck am I?" Of course he never really liked his relatives, and sometimes he wished he could beat them. But killing them, killing them _like this_ , went way too far. But then another voice spoke up, his inner darkness, his own little demon. _They deserved it._ This one sentence begun repeating in his mind over and over. _They deserved it_. They enslaved him, beat him, hunted him, discredited him.

 _It was way more merciful than the things they did to me_. Scenes started playing infront of his inner eye like unbidden guests. He couldnt stop them. A boy - himself! - begging Vernon to stop "teaching" his lesson. Him running away as his cousin and his gang played "Harry-hunting", how they catched him, beat him up and then let him away again, to start the pursuit again. His aunt, telling him to do the weed again - under the roses, without any tools. The shaking stopped. "They deserved it. They deserved it! THEY DESERVED IT!", like a new mantra the wizard started to say the sentence out loud. "I could have done worse to them - rightly so! Nobody should treat a human like that! I wont be able to kill Voldemort with _love_ or stunners! Its time to fight fire with fire, because they all deserve it! They already got a second, a third chance! _They_ wont change, so we have to change our methods and make them effective again!" The idea was quite good, but there were some problems. "The light side will never resort to these methods and wont accept them either... And disregarding that, I still have to learn about this new power I got. Without knowing what it means to have it, to be _me_ , I cant predict the outcome or possible backlashes." So he had to go to the wizarding world, specifically to Diagon Alley. _I have to be careful, the order will definetly be on the lookout_. He should disguise himself, every babbling idiot knew how he looked, thanks to this wonderful articles from the Prophet. "These morons dont really deserve a rescue... But I cant let Voldemort be, he will hunt me because of this damn prophercy!" Tomorrow he would start looking after a sufficient disguise, and then head straight to Knockturn Alley. He was pretty sure that books about this power were no standart ones, they were propably dark too. _I dont have much time, the order will definetyl track me down too. And the burning house got definetly the attention of the Dark Lord._

* * *

In an office, full of broken strange devices and next to a phoenix sat an old, wrinkled man with a long withe beard and colorwise completly unfitting robes. He tried to repar the damage done by one Harry Potter after hearing the prophercy. The desk and paintings were all in one piece, but the devices just shattered again and again. Normaly he would just buy new ones, but these were special. Yes, Albus Dumbledore wasnt able to just trhow them away, because they were for monitoring Privet Drive and Harry Potter. The boy was very lucky that he got this fit of rage - otherwise his position could be looked up in a matter of seconds. The old man focused his gaze on the old door, which was leading to the sprial stairs of the Tower. "Come in, Minerva." The door was smashed open, and a disheveled woman rushed in. Even in her haste she still was able to maintain a stern look. "Albus! Albus!", gasped the teacher. "Now calm down Minerva, and tell me slowly what happened. Care for a lemon drop?" "We dont have time to calm down or eat stupid sweets! Privet Drive Nr.4 was burned down!" The twinkle in the old mans eyes died. "WHAT?" "There are only ashes left! Albus, do you know where Harry is?" "But thats impossible", mumured the leader of the light, completly ignoring McGonnagalls question. "The blood wards should prevent a death eater attack. Did they found bodies?" "Yes, there are two in the kitchen and one in Harrys room, it looked like they had dinner at the moment." "A body in Harrys room? Are you sure?", a deep lingering fear begun filling the headmaster, but McGonnagall eased his worrys: "Yes, but the body isnt Harrys. It had a belt wrapped around his torso. Its from a drill manufactoring company called Grunnings. Im have never seen Harry with a belt like that, or a belt in general for the matter." "Lets hope you are right Minerva, lets hope you are right... The Order has to be informed, we will hold a meeting tomorrow evening, its too late now I think. Harry has to be found, and I want to know who is responsible for this whole situation and neglected his guard duty to this extend!"

* * *

The next day started with an loud crash. "Owwowwoww...", whimpered Harry, holding his head. "Did I just fall out of the bed? Why?! Goddammit...". But as he tried to stand, he knew something wasnt right. He was extremly clumsy, crashing against the closet, fiddling with the lever instead of opening it right away. "What have I this time?", asked the boy resigned to nobody in particular - he was alone after all. He fassed the plan to look in the mirror in the bathroom, maybe he could see the reason for this shit. But as he looked in the blinking silver, he didnt recognise himself: His face was more elegant, for a lack of better term, with chiseled aristocratic features, and all in all a little bit longer. The rest of his body wasnt the same either; he packed no muscles, but was at least not that meager anymore - his ribs were no longer visible. His scras were still there tough, and he still didnt look like a "normal" person, but it was a start. The boy let his fingers trace over his new face in wonder.

 _Thats me? Really? Could it be a dream? No, it feels too real for this..._ He had to adjust to these changes, but they werent that bad. The boy rather liked his new look. The only thing he really wanted to change was unfortunatly still the same: his unruly, ungodly hair, fled from the deepest pits of hell and resistant to every attack; magic or not. It just wasnt tameable. _At least this should make disguising a little bit easier..._ The day was still young, and he had a lot to do, so he started as fast as he could. After some nearly-crashes he was fully dressed in the still unfitting clothes from his fat cousin, pocketed the left money and marched out of his room, downstairs. He didnt plan to search hours for a good clothing-store tough, and asked the desk clerk instead. It was the same girl from before, and she looked pretty tired already. "Excuse me, but could you tell me please where the next good clothing store is?" Harry was straight to the point. "But of course sweetie. I asked myself already why you would run in such _rags_ trough the day." "Yes, I want to dispose of them."

After the helpful clerk described the way, Harry thanked and rushed out. The next couple of hurs were pretty uneventful. He bought tons of clothes, a complete new wardrobe in different variations of course. At the end of his little shopping spree, he switched to a blue jeans and a black hoodie, disposing of the freaking hand-me-downs he wore beforehand with satsifaction. Then he asked the shop clerk about a store where he could get makeup and color his hairs - for his "girlfriend" of course, to avoid dumb looks or dumber questions. It was the confident and relaxed Peter Harrison - a blonde with a firm tan and sunglasses - walking in the Leaky Cauldron a hour later _. Good that Dobby knew a good place to pop me over._ Nobody looked at him questionally as he walked in Diagon Alley two minutes later. _First, I need more money, Gringotts it is._ The bank was bustling with activity again - no suprise here. Harry strolled to the next free goblin.

"Excuse me, but I would like to do a withdrawal from my vault." The goblin looked up suprised: "A wizard with manners? Thats rare... Name?" Harry bend forward and whispered: "Harry Potter." Seeing the widening of the goblins eyes he added: "Please keep you voice low, I went trough a lot of trouble to stay unrecognised." "Mr. Potter, could you tell me why you didnt answer to our summoning, treating the Black Will?" "Excuse me, but I never received a summoning like this?" The goblin squinted his eyes. "But Im sure that it was send out, do you lie to me?" The boy shaked his head slowly. "No, you may have gave it out, but I definetly received no letter from Gringotts in the last weeks - or ever for that matter."

"Thats a problem... Follow me Sir, we have to get to the bottom of this." The goblin barked some thunderous words to another one - which sprinted away - lead the wizard out of the main hall and down an seemly endless corridor. Harry definetly didnt like where this was going, neither liked he this corridor. Goblins, goblins, goblins but no humans. He wasnt really sure that he should be there, and obviously the goblins werent either; they always looked suprised and most of the time suspiciously to see a human in their property. They stopped by a pair of gigantic doors, made out of gold and silver and decorated with runes of the goblin language. The boy gulped as his leader went to the doors and knocked with a strong fist. _Im sooooo fucked..._

"Come in." In the room, behind a rich with gold letters coated desk sat an old goblin. "I already got noted about your arrival and the claims you made, the reason why you are here." "Im-Im not in trouble, am I?" "That depends on the truthfulness of you claims. You said you never got any letters from us?" "Not that I can remeber, no." The old one adressed 'Harrys' goblin. "Bring me the files about the old and ancient house of Potter." "Yes my King." The goblin nearly fled the room. _King? Oh shit shit shit!_ "Is it that serious?", he hastily added: "And Im sorry if I offended you with my ignorance, but your status wasnt known by me..." The goblin gave a toothy grin. "Im not offended young wizard, not yet. You make a lost impression on me, which enforces your claims - unfortunatly, because they look like betrayal on our side. My name is Ragnok, and Im the leader of the Goblin Nation. The house Potter is one of our oldest clients, a very wealthy one too. We would like to keep it that way." "Here are the requested files my King!" "Good, you may go." Ragnok scanned the documents. "You never got any of these?" "No." "So this isnt signed by you?" He held a sheet of paper with 'Harry James Potter' in the air. "Not, thats not even my handwriting...". "Hmm, would you be alright with proving this?" "How do I do this?"

The king gave Harry a strange document: It was a very dark color, nearly black, with lots of unreadable lines and a clear box at the bottom. He then showed Harry a quill. "Thats a-" "Blood quill, I know how to use these." Ragnok looked shocked: "Where did you use something like this?!" Harry looked up suprised, the paper for the moment forgotten. "My DADA-teacher made us write lines with it in detention, why?" "WHAT? Thats higly illegal! A blood quill is classificied as an dark object and only we goblins are allowed to use it, and only if it is necessary to solve problems with our clients!" "I _knew_ thats she wasnt allowed to! I _knew_ it! Goddammit!" "You could charge them with it." "I think I would like that." "Ok, but first we have to solve the other matter, huh?" The boy chuckled sheepishly: "Um, yes. Sorry about my cursing." This time he got a full-blown, toothy laugh: "You dont have to apologize young wizard, but you have manners, thats good. Lets continue." Harry gave an uneasy smile, and wrote with as much speed as he could muster his name in the box. With a familar burning hand, he gave the king the paper. Ragnok observed Harrys writing and then faced the imposers one. He laid the bloody signature beneath the one written with ink - the ink hissed and then changed to a muddle of lines. A goblin came in, collected both papers and left again.

"It looks like somebody deceived us. At this moment we are searching for the imposers signature." "What were those lines?" "The writing-signature of the one trying to trick us, which wasnt the same as you signature." Ragnok bowed: "We werent able to fulfill our duty, for that we are deeply sorry and I promise you, that the ones responsible will be punished harshly. Now, can we do you a favor as apology?" A favor? What would be the best idea for it? Harrys head was swimming. What would benefit him the most? "What possibility is there to denie all futher attemps, controling me or my heritage?" The goblin looked toughtful. "Emancipation is always the best possibility to make youself independent, but also the most difficult one. I the eyes of the goblins, you are an adult since you went to Hogwarts the first time, because you are Head of your House. In the magical community, you are still a minor until you are seventeen years of age... The only other possibility is to get formally emancipated by them, what they wont do I fear..." _And there goes this idea..._ So he wasnt able to get away from them? Not at all? How could he get himself emancipated... "Could I get emancipated because of the Tri-Wizard-Tournament I took part of? I was the only minor there..." Ragnok shaked his head: "I dont think so young wizard, the Goblet of Fire never recognised age, only power and skill." "But they said only adults are allowed to compete..." The goblin perked up: "Did they say it _exactly_ like that? Was a representative of the ministry there?" "Yes, there was Crouch... but he was under the Imperius by his son I think." "Ah, but that doesnt matter, because they didnt correct it afterwards. So they made it official. We can work with this." The doors opened and a goblin came in. "Please send for the files about emancipation by the ministry." "Yes, my King." _How does he do that?_ _They always come to the right time..._ Ragnok turned to Harry again. "The funny thing is, we are allowed to emancipate because the ministry is like it is now - corrupt. The rich purebloods want everything as fast as possible, and so made us the acting party, but we have to follow wizard-law. They dont trust us of course, we are only _lesser creatures-_ " the last part the king said with disgust and anger "-but that makes us the perfect servants, huh? Now they lost a good part of their influence and power in this matters, because of their own greed and big heads. They wont check the paperwork if they are not specifically asked to." "Its stupid to see non-humans as lesser or babaric... I personally have a house-elf as a very good friend of mine. Of course I would like to work with you too." "Ah, I hoped for that Mr. Potter. It would be very... unfortunate if you take your gold and go."

The next minutes were in a rush for the poor boy - the goblin came back with tons of papers, Harry had to sign every one of it. Then Ragnok gave him his house-ring, which he put on his right hand. It was golden band with the small insignia of a griffin on the top. The formal stuff done, Harry took a small purse with a direct access to his vaults - against a small fee of course - and changed some galleons to muggle-money. "You have been very helpful so far - can I call you by your name? Yes? Good. - but could you tell me how I loose the Trace without getting the ministry notified?" "We cant do something like this, and Ollivander will notify the ministry because he has to. The Trace itself will wear off on your seventeenth birthday, but you dont have the time to wait... You could go to Knockturn Alley, there is a wandmaker with skills powerful enough to delete the Trace. But be careful! There will be Death Eaters and other scum." After the old goblin described Harry the way he had to go, they wished the other one good luck ("May your gold flow freely.") And a goblin escorted Harry back in the main hall. There Harry became 'Peter Harrison' again and went with steady and powerful steps to Knockturn Alley.

This place was definetly not on Harrys 'favourite'-list. He mantained his powerful walk, but was dieing inside. The Alley was dark, there were hags trying to sell something, crippled people to his right and left, using the walls as support and from the side streets came strange sounds. Finally he arrived at his destination. The shop of the wand-maker was small and snuggled against the dark walls of the Alley. There was a old and dirty sign with the name of the shop: "Wurmings - Wands and Wonders". The wizard took a deep breath, swallowed and walked in. The shop was on the inside pretty much the complete opposite of outsides: Clean shelves full of boxes were neatly lined on every wall, there was a small desk facing the entrance, and behind it was a small, old man. _Its a lot like Ollivanders._ The man mustered Harry with a cold and calculating gaze, he said nothing. _Here goes nothing_. "Hello, I heard you can remove the trace from wands such as mine?" Silence. _Say something already!_ "Are you always that friendly with your customers?" Still silence. "If you dont want my money, fine, you could have told me and I would not waste my time with you." Finally the old man spoke.

"You dont belong here. Why should I give my service to a brat like you? You could be a little spy.", his voice was old and raspy. "Ah, I dont belong here?" "Yes, and now get lost kid." "So my money doesnt belong here either?" The man hesistated, but just for a second. "Get lost.", he repeated. _How does he even make money if he always kicks his customers out? Or does he just sell wands to Death Eaters and other scum?_ "Why are you still here brat? Piss of already." "I dont think so." "Have you any idea who you are talking too? Im powerful child, and I have powerful friends." "Like the Death Eater scum?", sneered the boy. The old man started to become really angry now. "ARE YOU DEAF? PISS! OFF!" As he shouted, something changed in Harry again. _Uh oh, I feel strange again... I feel like THIS time again..._ The power thundered trough his whole body, he could feel the _hunger_ again, his eyes glowed in the sickly green of the death curse. **"I dont think so, old man."** The eyes of the wand-maker widened only for a fraction, then he drawed his wand and fired a red curse on the boy. **"You should stop that."** The mist was there again, changing the direction of the curse and the proceeded to the owner of the shop. As he was picked up, he started shouting: "STOP! STOP! I WILL DO IT! JUST STOP!" **"Now we are talking."** The mist let his prey crashing to the floor, but still hovered in midair. "I need your wand for this." The old man was shaking, and his voice cracked a little. **"Here, but only one wrong move and you will die. It wont be a nice death."** "Yes, yes, I understand." The wand-maker picked a stone box from behind the counter and opened it. It was completly coated with runes in different colour and size. Then he took Harrys wand and laid it in the box, closing it shortly after. He started chanting in an strange accent. The box started glowing in different colours, intensifying over time. Then there was a flash and he stopped. "It is done. The Trace and everything else blocking or tracking your wand is gone." **"Good. I trust you that this will stay only between the two of us?"** "Bu-But of course, customer stay secret here, otherwise there would be no business possible." **"Very good. May we never have to meet again."** And with this words, the mist flowed again in Harrys mouth and nose, the boy turned around and left the shop. Next stop: New clothes for the wizarding world.

Madam Malkins was his choice for clothes, and he ordered only the best she had to offer - Ragnok told him he should not worry over money, even tough he hadnt seen the total amount of gold in his vaults. Leaving a very exstatic woman behind - "They will be ready as soon as possible, may I owl you?" "But of course, adress it to 'Peter Harrison'" - he had to thank his lucky stars that he was finished already. He nearly had a run-in with the Weasleys tough. _Dont recognise me, dont recognise me, dont recognise me._ "Excuse me Mister?" _SHIT!_ "Um, yeah? Is something wrong?" "I only wanted to aks you if you have seen a girl with bushy, brown hair?" _They search Hermione?_ "Um, no? I dont remeber such a girl, but the street is pretty busy at the moment, so I wouldnt be able to tell..." "Ah but of course, Im sorry. We are on our way. Come children!" And there went Molly with her two youngest. _Good, danger avoided. Back to Gringotts._ He met again with Ragnok - and got some very curious looks from the other wizards in the bank as he got escorted away - because he managed Harrys vaults personally until the prior problem was definetly found and eleminated. "Ah, Mr. Potter, back so soon? I hope you were succesfull?" "Indeed I were Ragnok, thanks again for your help. Are the lists about my possession here?" "Yes they are. You want to look them over?" "I would like that." The teen took the papers and browsed over the information. "I have a freaking _Manor_? With a whole piece of land, too?!" A toothy grin. "Thats only because we selled the other buildings, following the wishes of your parents. You may should look at your gold." Harry did just that. "THAT IS ALL MINE? So many zeros... Sure that this is no mistake?" "Oh, its perfectly fine." "Im rich... Im _very_ rich..." He collapsed. "When I think about my life until now, how I owned next to nothing... I was worried that my money wouldnt be enough for school for gods sake!" "Oh, if you want to buy Hogwarts, its more about your influence over the Headmaster and the Minister of Magic... But gold helps you there too." "I didnt mean it that way and you know it." Toothy grin. "So how do I get to the manor?" "Your ring is a port-key, but I dont know the phrase to activate it, I wasnt able to try either, because it got a nasty hex against misuse. But before that, I should inform you about the Black-Will." _Sirius, I will revenge you!_ "It is in a weeks time, I will send you an owl with an portkey, would that be acceptable? You would be able to get directly on Gringotts grounds, so nobody from the ministry will be able to do something about you." "About owls, could there be something like block on my person? Because I never received any goblin-letters, so it would makes sense to check." "Ah, but of course. I will send you to one of our curse-breakers. He will look you up." "Thanks."

The curse breaker was luckily not Bill Weasley, but a one-eyed goblin with tons of different scars on his face. "Sit still!" A short incarnation later - the goblin only used his hands and no wand - there was a brief flash, and Harry felt itchy all over his body. "There was indeed a repelling charm on your person, young human, which I removed. It was crafted very well, only blocking letters with special content and redirecting them. I wasnt able to find the new destination unforutnatly." "That doesnt matter, you already helped me a lot. Thanks." "It was no problem young wizard." In mid-step Harry remembered something: "And may your gold always flow freely master goblin." The curse-breaker was definetly suprised, but overcame it quickly: "And may you slay all of your enemies young human." Harry nodded and got escorted to the main hall again. Leaving Gringotts behind, he tried to activate his ring: "Bring me to my manor." Nothing. "Get me to Potter Manor." Still nothing. "Hmm. Maybe-", he could feel something in his mind, giving him directions. "- just 'Potter Manor'?" There was the familar tucking behind his navel, the world spinned and he landed head-first on the ground. "Oww, I wil never get used to this..." Of course his ancestors had to be lazy and choose _only_ the name of the building as activation-phrase. The boy blicked up, and nearly fainted. That was no manor, that was a _castle_! Wonderful green land with a small lake next to a small forest could be seen. There was a road which lead uphills to the building. It was a gigantic structure, made of polished wood and white marmor. It had a tower with an walkable exit on top. The style looked like a mix between ancient greek and modern spanish, if you ignored the wooden aspects. "Thats mine? I cant even _use_ the whole space! It looks nearly as big as Hogwarts!" It wasnt that bad to have so much space, but Harry was overwhelmed never the less, he finally had something he could call a home - a very big home. "Dobby?" _pop_ "Yes?" _I will never get used to this..._ "Could you please pick up my stuff from the hotel and bring it here? Pop me over too, I want to tell them that I leave."

It was _still_ the same girl behind the counter, nearly sleeping now, with her head dropped down. "You are still here?" "Mhh?" She looked up and stared for nearly ten seconds, licking her lips one time. Harry squirmed uncomfortable: "What are you looking for?" This seemed to snap her out of it, her face started heating up. "Do we know each other, handsome?" _Ah, I still got the disguise up._ "As a matter of fact, you do. You described me the way for a good clothing store, remeber?" The girl begun to panic a little: _I dont know him! And he looks so tasty! I couldnt have forgotten someone like this! What to do?_ She was beet red now. "Hey, are you okay?" "YesIamokeverythingisfinecanIhelpyou?" "Excuse me, what did you just say?" Now she started squirming under his concerned gaze. _What is wrong with her? I will just take my leave..._ "Nevermind, I just wanted to tell you that I will leave, here is my key. I paid already." "Ok", came the whispered reply. Confused and just a little bit concerned Harry left the building and used his portkey. _Did I have something on my face?_ The clerk was frantically searching the person which rented the room in her books. "It was the boy from today morning? Nah, I made a mistake, _that_ definetly wasnt he. At least he paid."

* * *

Dumbledore sighted for what felt the hundred time. Since the meeting started hours ago and he told the Order about the news - chewing Fletcher out in the process - there was chaos. Utter chaos. For _hours_! He praised himself for his patience, but this time even he couldnt take it anymore. "Of course the arrogant brat runned away without contacting us. He is a _Potter_ after all.", sneered our favourite potions Master. "The house was burned down you fool!" "How could you not spott a _burning house_ you damn thief?" "Whe have to-" They were talking like this without a break the whole damned time! " **SHUT UP**!" Silence. It wasnt often, that the great 'Leader of the Light' shouted. "Arguing, like we are doing for hours now solves nothing! Harry has to be found, he cant be dead! Our main concern is to find him and put him to safety. I personally dont think that he actually runned away from us, but it _is_ strange that he doesnt contact us. Molly, we need someone on the Burrow, should Harry arrive there. Some of us will stay here at Grimauld Place too. The others will search trough all magical settlements, especially Diagon Alley. I will not be able to lead the search, Sirius Will will be read in the next days. Tonks, you got the same problem I believe?" The metamorphorph nodded. "After the reading, we will of course focus ourselves on the search too. Harry Potter has to be found! Do your best and more!" Determined faces looked back at him, the old man nodded satisfied. "Then, lets start!"

* * *

Harry loved his new home: It was a little dusty, sure, but it still looked great. Multiple bedrooms, a big dinner hall, even a ballroom. The tower was packed with telescopes and stuff like that - he would never use them, but the view was definetly wonderful - and there was a dungeon, holding a potionslab and even some cells with iron shackles and magic-supressing wards. There was a library too, with enough books to make Hermione disappear for ages, altough they were not up-to-date. For his crazy friend named Dobby, the house wasnt great sondern more like heaven. Harry didnt know that Elfes _loved_ cleaning, especially wishing dust and dirt away. It made sense in a grotesk way; otherwise the little buggers wouldnt be able to do stuff like this their whole lives with a smile on their faces. The elf was nearly drooling. "Can me clean the house? Can me? Can me?" "Um, sure that it isnt a little too big for you alone?" To stop the elf from crying he added fast: "I mean, you shouldnt overwork yourself, im just concerned." Well, Dobby didnt cry his unhapiness in the world, but Harry still fucked up. _Well, it was worth a try..._ "Master Harry Sir is the best wizard in the world! He is _concerned_ about me!" Naturally, the boys leg got a very emotional hug... _again_. "Dobby, you are my personal Elf, if you have too much work to do, please tell me. I have no problems bonding with an Elf, who can keep my secrets and work well. Dobby turned his head sideways. "Can me make a suggestion for Master Harry Sir?" "Of course you can, I already told you so.", said the boy with a laugh. "Master Harry Sir could bond with Winky." "Winky you say? Hmm..."

The idea wasnt bad at all: Winky seemed unhappy the last time the boy saw her. And she was able to keep Crouch Jr. a secret for _years_ , even in hectical situations. "Do you think Winky would be happy to bond with me?", asked the wizard softly. "You could ask her yourself Master Harry Sir." "How?", asked he suprised. "Me could bring Winky to you. Me would prevent her from identifying the location." _Should I take the risk? Is there a risk? Not really._ "Then bring me Winky please." The Elf was gone with a pop, Harry was alone. Everything worked fine until now, but he made a mistake with the wandmaker. He shouldnt have lost control like that. Not because the old man was innocent - which he wasnt - but because since then he felt this disturbing _hunger_ again. He really had to look trough his library about this, because this was more than just a little alarming. _Maybe Dobby can help me with this..._ "Mes there again. And me got Winky!" Winky looked definetly not good. She got dried Butterbeer all over her, deep marks under her eyes, ander her ears sacked to the ground. _At least she has no beer in her hands._ "What can me-hick-do for Sir?" Harry kneeled down and looked her straight in the eyes. "Do you want to bond with me and my family?" The Elfes eyes grew wide. "Young Master wants to bond with bad Winky? But Winky is a bad House-Elf!" _If I tell her that she has no fault in this, she will deny again..._ "You may say that, and maybe you are right, but I still want to bond with you. If you are willing to serve me, you will get a second chance, ok?" "Bad Winky gets a second chance? Is young Master sure about that?" "I am." Winky squealed out of joy. "Winky will take this chance and serve young Master very well!" A short bonding later, and Harry got _two_ hyperactive Elfes running trough his Manor. They fixed the master-bedroom first, so an exhausted Harry was able to get some more sleep, after ordering them to just clean the rooms he had to use. After that they should scan his library about this strange power he had, and brief him in the morning about it.

* * *

Of course it would have been too easy - the elves found nothing, to their 'everlasting shame'. Harry sat in the big dining hall, trying to eat the tons of food Winky made for him. Obviously she didnt take any chances with displeasing him, and did this because she 'failed' him one time already. "Dobby, do you have an Idea where I could get a book about this? One that could answer my questions." The hunger had a positive side, too. Because of it he was able to eat a lot of the food Winky provided. "Bad Masters sent Dobby one time to bad Alley. There were rare books, but Dobby wasnt allowed to buy them. Old Masters werent happy about that..." Harry winced, that did sound like self-punishment. "You mean Knockturn Alley? There would definetly be books you dont get somewhere else, but where should I search them? The Order could be a problem too, they will definetly be on the lookout now..." The boy showered this morning, so he was 'plain-old-Harry' again. He liked his new looks, but they alone were too risky and he had no make-up and hair-dyer left. A simple glamour could work of course, the trace was gone, but it still was risky. At this moment, an owl came flattering in. The letter was from Madam Malkins and told him that most of his clothes were finished already. _How does that even work? Im not Peter Harrison, maybe there is even a Peter Harryson, but the owl still came to me?_ He shouldnt think about stuff like that, for this he had Hermione normally. "Ah, I should write them, I forgot about these two."

But otherwise, why should he? They left him in the dark now for multiple times! _Payback is a bitch..._ "Dobby, please fetch the clothes already done from Madam Malkins. If the mantle made of acromantula silk isnt one of them, tell her to focus on it." "Me will do." After the Elf left, Harry asked Winky to bring him a book about glamours, which she did. His plan was, to change his features just a little bit more and to glamour the hood of his mantle to change his voice and prevent people from seeing his face. Normally he would have done more, but the hunger grew stronger and he wanted answers as fast as possible. He got lucky, because his mantle was indeed finished, so he was able to leave fast. The charm was applied without a problem, and Dobbys explanations told him that 'Borgin and Burkes' was the shop in question. The young wizard was proud on the enchantment of his hood, you couldnt see inside, as much as you tried, and his voice sounded distorted and a little bit robotic. A short pop later, and Harry stood infront of the illegal shop. "You are known Dobby, so you have to wait outside. I will handle this." "Me will wait at your Manson." "Thats fine too, I have my ring to escape." All orders given, the disguised stepped with big, confident steps in the shop. The slimy shopkeeper was awaiting him. "And how may I help you?" "I need to look at the books you keep." "Oh, surely you have to be mistaken, I dont sell books of any kind here." The costumer snorted. "Of course you dont. Now show me." Borgin looked at Harry with a critical eye, but didnt move. "I dont have the whole day. And I really dont need Aurors on me, so hurry up!" Obviously satisfied with the little outburst, Borgin went trough a door behind at the end of the shop. A minute later he came back, floating behind him was a big chest. He dropped the obviously heavy thing with a careless flick of his wand. Another flick and the chest opened. Out of it flew a big number of books - there had to be thirty or more - which all lined up in the middle of the shop. "Hurry please, I neither have the whole day." Nodding, Harry stepped forward and scanned the book titles. _No, no, thats about potions, no I dont want to breed magical creatures, I dont think that is a good idea..._ The cover of the book showed a man jumping in a vulcan. But then he got the feeling again, there was only a small problem: it focused on none of the books presented, but on the backroom. "These are not all of your books." Borgin squinted his eyes: "That are all books open for sale." "Oh, surely you have made a mistake. _These are not all of your books_." "Do you want to threaten me? If so, you should take your leave."

 _Hmm, Im able to hold it at bay right now, but he is definetly straining my patience_. "Your last chance..." Borgin got angry; the books zipped back in the chest, the chest closed with an loud 'clonk'. "Out! You are not wished here!" **"Scared?"** The man gave a shriek, forgot his wand and tried to flee, but was forcefully crashed agaisnt the wall. **"Stay, you fool. I will only say this one more time: These are not all of your books, so bring me the rest!"** The shopkeeper whimpered. **"NOW!"** the man sprinteted as fast as he could in the backroom, and returned after seconds with five books in his arms. "These are all! I swear!" **"I will tell you if these are all. Now shut up."** Harry completly ignored the other four books and focused on the one to the far right. At first it seemed completly blank, even as he opened it, but from the corner of his eye he could detect... movement? _Are these the words written in it? Why are they not readable?_ Still, it definetly was the book giving him the urge to take it, so he decided to just do that. **"I will take this one. Keep your filthy mouth shut about everything that happened here or I will kill you.** _ **Slowly**_ **."** He could see the gears turning in the mans head, obviously his greed for money outweighted his will to survive, but before he could open his mouth, Harry had already left.

 _Now I have a problem, Im not able to force it back. I hope the book can help me, at least I_ had _to buy it. That has to count for something._ But as he walked into Diagon Alley - he wanted to look after the clothes yet to finish - he had to search cover because of a sickly green curse flying in his direction. "Death Eaters, why have they to attack now?!" The boy wasnt sure how to proceed; on the one hand he wanted to stay unrecognized, but on the other hand he could see innocent people running away in panic, getting hit by cruciatus or worse. Should he help them? _Could_ he help them? In the end he decided because of two important factors: Firstly, there was still the hunger, and the power he couldnt force back, and second there was a little girl seperated by his mother. A Death Eater was stalking to her. "What do we have here?" "Mommy! Mommy, help me please!", the girl started to begg with a tearstreaked face. "Please dont hurt me! I have never done anything! Please!" "Awww, scared little Mudblood? Here, let me help you: _Cruc-_ " 'CRUNCH' The Death Eater looked baffled at his bloody stump of an arm. Then the pain set in. "GOD! WHO DID THIS? I WILL TORTURE YOU TO DEATH!" **"Have fun, scum."** What the-?" **"Die."** The terrified screams coming from within the thick black mist where heard by the other Death Eaters, making them turn to the one mocking them. **"Run little girl."** As the girl was making her escape, Harry mustered the remaining terrorists. "Who are you, daring to attack us?" **"Your death. You should start praying for forgiveness."**

Enraged the Death Eater tried firing their spells on the enemy. The keyword was tried, because in exactly this moment a solid wall of mist rolled over them, blinding them and making actual shooting impossible. Harry too wasnt able to see, but that was no problem for the teen. He wanted to sate his _hunger_ , and for that he didnt need more orders than 'kill them all'. The mist, _his_ mist reacted like an obedient pet, and soon he could hear the sounds of death. After what felt like minutes, there was only the soft swishing of the mist left. _Time to clean up._ Like the last times, he did everything instinctual. Harry took a deep breath, and could feel the mist crawling down his throat, setting in his chest and forming a smoldering ball of power there. He felt _so good_. Finally able to see again, he looked over the remains of his prey - he meant enemies of course. The Death Eaters were all over the place, pale and thin bodies looked trough masks and with broken eyes into nothingness. Harry wanted to leave, but the ring didnt activate. "What is now wrong with- Oh shit!" He knew what was wrong: There came Dumbledore with his Order of KFC, completly with colorblindess generating clothes. "What happened here?" _You are so stupid old man..._ "YOU! Who are you? Identify yourself!" Harry crossed his arms and mustered his Headmaster. _Dumbledore obviously put anti-apparating and anti-portkey wards up, and he looks pretty angry right now. How can I escape wit him and his whole KFC here?_ "Hey! Im talking to you!" The boy said nothing, but noted that he was surrounded by order-members. What should he do? If he tried to force his way out, they would arrest him. The same would happen if he ignored them like he did now... He squashed the tiny voice in his head, which was telling him to use his new powers on them. He may have been pissed with Dumbledore, but that wasnt reason enough to actually kill them, and he would be forced to kill because if he started to use the mist they would label him a dark wizard and may even attack with lethal force. Until he knew what to do, he would stall them as much as he could.

"It doenst matter who I am." That was obviously not his brightest response. "Of course it does! Did you do this to these men? Did you put yourself over the law?!" _Really Dumbledore? YOU have the guts to say that after everything you have done?_ "These _men_ are the biggest scum on earth right now. They already escaped justice multiple times, your _law_ is the biggest bullshit I ever heard. Now they wont kill and rape anymore." The old man was furious: "THAT MAKES YOU STILL A MURDERER! They deserved a fair trial!" Did he just accused Harry of murder? _Ok, the Dursleys... he got a point there, but he doesnt have to know that._ "How can you spill such nonsense? A fair trial? Did you even look in the Ministry? They would have been cleared of all charges way too easy because they have _money_." "Everybody deserves a second chance! Now identify yourself!" _A, Moody isnt here. My luck_. **"A second chance? They already got a third or fourth you fool!"** "HE IS A DARK WIZARD!", one of the members shouted in panic. "ATTACK HIM!" _I have to get out! I dont want to fight them goddammit!_ The world seemed in slow-motion. Harry could see the first jets of light flying in his direction. He felt fear, he had to flee! If he got himself exposed, there would be hell to pay! The boy could hear his heart beating frantically: **'Bumbumbumbumbum'** There came the first spell - it connected with his chest.

Everything went dark.


	3. Chapter 2

**The Lord of Life**

 **AN:** Sooo, here is the next chapter! Thanks for your pointers, Im trying to follow them. Please tell me, is it better like that? So read and Review, i wanna get at least good enough to be able to call me an writer! :D

 **Disclaimer:** Look Prolog

 **Chapter 2**

He could see blurred faces. How many where they, two? They seemed to speak, but the sound that reached his ears was fuzzy and absurd. Where was he? The figures pressed something to his lips. Poison? He didnt want to drink it, but he was too weak to resist. The liquid runned his throat down, cooling and cleaning his body from the inside. The sound cleared. "Master Harry Sir! Master Harry Sir!" "Can young Master hear me?" Master...?

"D-Dobby? Winky?", croaked the boy.

"Yes Master Harry Sir!" Was he at home? "Where am I?"

"You are in the library young Master."

Finally the fog lessened enough to scan his surroundings. Yes, that was definetly his library. He tried to sit up, but registered then his position: he was in one of the many armchairs. "How did I get here?"

Immediately the elves started apologizing: "Me dont know young Master/ Master Harry Sir. You just came in with a bang, but it was no apparation! Mes sorry Master!"

"Dont tear yourself up about this, Im not angry." Ignoring the now worshipping elves, he tried to solve this new mystery.

 _I teleported, but it was no apparation. Neither was it my portkey... He knew he forgot something._ _Could it be a part of my power? But it didnt feel_ _like it_. Suddenly he remembered with a gasp: "The book! Where is the book?" It wasnt in the pockets of the mantle, where he put it before. Did he loose it in Diagon Alley? "I hope it isnt Dumbledores now.", groaned the wizard.

"Me got the book Master Harry." He whirled to his favourite house elf. There it was! Dobby held it in his small hands, presenting it for his Master. Harry jumped up and hugged the small being.

"Thanks Dobby! You are the best!"

"Master Harry Sir is such a great wizard!"

Harry dropped heavily back in his armchair, opening the book at the same time. He was suprised to find it actually readable; there where completly normal letters. **'The Lord of Life'** was the headline. **"My life, written down by me.'** _This certainly looks promising._ "Can you make dinner in, lets say two hours? I will read until then.", said the boy, and let himself be engulfed by his new reading.

* * *

After the encounter with the strange but dark wizard, the Order of the Phoenix met with all members in Grimauld Place. Of course there was chaos again, until Dumbledore himself started to speak: "Today, we encountered a yet unknown power. This person seems to be a wizard, a dark and very skilled one at that." Gasps were heard. "But I dont know his intentions - obviously he doesnt side with the Dark Lord."

Moody, the gruff auror spoke up: "He could try to overthrow You-Know-Who and place himself as the leader of the Dark."

A pale Molly Weasley let her toughts known: "But surely we can beat him? He will not become a menace as strong as You-Know-Who, will he?" There was no twinkle in the mans eyes.

"He killed a whole group of Death Eaters, without sustaining any injuries. He didnt even looked out of breath. I fear he is nearly the same level as Voldemort, he may even try to surpass him."

Fear-filled looks were sent under each other, Remus Lupin took the word: "But he didnt attack us, instead he fled. This has to mean something."

"Maybe he wasnt sure he could take on Dumbledore?" - that was Shacklebolt.

"Maybe...", said the werewolf, but he didnt seem convinced.

"Never the less, we have to be on the lookout. I want you to inculde every information you may get about this foe in your search for Harry. Now its even more important that we find the boy, he may have _two_ Dark Lords trying to kill him now."

* * *

Said boy in question was completly fascinated at the moment. The book was indeed about his new powers and how to control and use them to the best way possible. The autor was someone who called himself 'The Lord of Life' and he described the costs and possibilities in grear detail. He even made a chapter only about the observations he made while doing experiments, and gave suggestions for beginner.

 _ **"At first I understood this power as the best gift there could be, gigantic tools for destruction and domination at the tips of your fingers. But of course there are costs, you always have to pay a price. But what is this new kind of magic? After several experiments with humans and some magical creatures, I think I found a answer to this question: Life Force. Every beeing needs energy to live, and the stronger you are, the longer you could live. Take Wizards for example: Weak Magicals, squibs. They live only as long as the average muggle. But powerful ones, they can life for hundred of years! Merlin lived even for thousands! The bigger your magical core, the stronger your magic is, the more energy - Life Force - you have obviously at your disposal. But can you measure the amount of Life Force? Calculate the years you have left to live? Strenghten your Life Force with the dark rituals that boost your magical core? I tried to answer these questions.**_

 _ **Firstly, there is nothing really special about you and me. The power you can feel is just a direct link to your Life Force. The only real difference is that you can manifest it - mine took the form of black mist, I dont know if that is the normal look of Life Force, nobody else seems able to manifest it - and then use it for spells of a different sort. Gone are the normal curses, hexes, charms and so on - you can control sheer power in its fundamental form! But take care: Im pretty sure that draining the Life Force of other beeing is only that simple, because they dont got a direct link. If they had one, the one with more Life Force at his disposal would win the battle, about this Im fully convinced. So you can absorb the power of every living being like a deadly parasite, and lengthen your own life with this - it even gives you a slightly bigger magical core after draining a very powerful creature.**_

 _ **But now there come the costs:**_

 _ **You burn trough your own Life Force very fast, so you need to feast to survive.**_

 _ **If you dont kill your prey with this, you will only generate a very small amount of Life Force, it seems that the body guards the big part like a greedy goblin until he dies.**_

 _ **The older you get, the more Life Force you will need.**_

 _ **You can use your Life Force for spells and other things in battle, but if you go too far you may black out and die after a short time.**_

 _ **Spells powered with Life Force dont absorb it, so even if you slay a whole army you may gain nothing.**_

 _ **The absorbing mist is laughable easy to block if you are prepared - a Patronus, a very strong lumos, even a strong but standart shield charm may reduce the effect or prevent it completly.**_

 _ **You may have changes regarding your character and person, you will want to hunt prey - it doesnt matter what the prey is.**_

 _ **If you see yourself still as a lucky person, even after reading this, I congratulate you. But be warned: You may be convinced that you can handle the negative aspects, but they are not as easy as they seem."**_

Harry wasnt sure if he could call himself lucky, but at least he got some answers. "The Lord of Life, huh? I think I will honor his title. Now lets have a look at these spells..."

* * *

The boy was nervous. Today was the reading of Sirius' Will. An owl from Gringotts arrived the night before with an portkey - a knut - which should bring him directly to a waiting goblin. Harry wore the clothes Winky picked for him: A robe, painted a dark brown and with some grey trimming. The whole outfit made his appearance dark and serious. It fitted well for the reading and it showed that Harry wasnt completly 'light' anymore, at least it could show the last point if you knew what Harry already did. The wizard used the last days for studying the book and already tried one of the spells from within. It wasnt something special, just a specific glamour which made his eyes glowing in their Avada Kedavra colour. He even found the twin for normal apparating, but the book warned that it drains a lot of LF. He got lucky the last time because he drained the whole group of Death Eaters. Harry looked over his appearance one last time, gave a satisfied nod and picked up the knut. "Time is money" The familar hook behind his navel pulled and our hero crashed face first on the stone floor from Gringotts.

 _I fucking hate_ _these things! Groaning the boy hauled himself up and catched sight of a goblin - a grinning golbin._ _Of course he finds this funny... Stupid magical journey-shit... The goblin walked over._

"Lord Potter, you are right on time. Follow me please, I will lead you to the hall where the reading will be held."

The smaller creature turned and went out of the room, without looking back. Harry catched up with him after a few steps and kept himself on the samle level as his escort afterwards. The nervousness he felt for the last hours was only a dull throbbing in the back of his mind now. Finally they arrived; a big double door with two goblin guards next to it. It was closed at first, but at seeing Harry – or more Harrys leader – they straightened and let them pass with a nod.

The room itself was pretty big and looked a little like a courtroom. It consisted of a straight wall facing a round one. A big desk with three goblins behind it was placed against the straight one. In front of it were multiple lines of tables, all equipped with dozen of chairs behind them. They were positioned higher the closer you came to the round wall. The chairs behind the tables were empty. Harry recognized the goblin in the middle.

"King Ragnok? A pleasure to meet you, may your gold flow freely master goblin." The king gave his trademark toothy grin, ignoring the other goblins, which were looking very suprised that a _human knew their king personally and even greet him in goblin-tongue._

"Yours too young wizard. Lets hope for a profitable day, shall we?"

"Defintely, were shall I sit down?"

"Where you wish young human."

The boy gave a respectful nod, and chose the table directly at the wall, but sat on a chair at the left end. He picked this spot, because he could scan the yet-to-come and would later be able to see the reactions of everybody.

 _Now its time to wait..._

Luckily nobody wanted to came late – the doors would be closed one minute after the appointed time – so the newcomers were there pretty fast. The first to arrive were the Malfoys. Harry was able to supress the sneer that was on the verge of forming, but only barely. Narcissa and Draco were so busy holding their noses high in the air and looking down on the goblins, that they completely overlooked him. Then Remus Lupin made his entrance and drew their ire. After that Harry had to supress the reflex which would have made him reach for his wand, because a woman resembling Bellatrix LeStrange very strongly walked in. The only reason he didnt attack was because of the woman next to her.

 _Tonks..._

Indeed there was his favourite clumsy auror, this time with coal black hair. After that some old guys – they looked like the Malfoys purebloods – Harry didnt know came in. Maybe they have the hope to cash up. Ragnok scanned the crowd, squinted his eyes but nodded. Somebody was still missing, but it didnt look like he wanted to wait any longer. A short handsign later the doors swung slowly shut.

"WAIT! WAIT! Im here!" Dumbledore arrived at the last possible second, breathing heavy he pressed himself in the room. Ragnok looked unhappy, but didnt speak up. The goblin to his left – Goldtooth the sign read - did instead.

"Albus Dumbledore, why do you interrupt a formal reading?" The old wizard looked surprised.

"Interrupt? I have a right to be here." Goldtooth narrowed his eyes.

"And tell, why do you think do you have such a right?"

"Im proxy for the House of Potter, Im attenting here replacing them." Goldtoothy grinned, showing a set of teeth made out of the precious metal.

"But Lord Potter is already here and doesnt need a proxy he never elected."

Shocked Dumbledore scanned the crowd until his eyes fell on the lonely figure on the far left. "Harry? My boy, what are you doing here? Why didnt you contact us? Come, I have to bring you to safety! You are not ready for politics!" He started to make his way over. Cold fury washed over the young Lord _._

 _He tries to control me again? Im not ready_ _to hear Sirius last wishes?! How dare he!_

Dumbledore was nearly there when the boy spoke up. His cold and silky voice forced the old man to a abrupt stop.

"You have _no power in these halls Headmaster. And I wont come with you, you manipulating old fool!_ _IM NOT READY TO HEAR THE LAST WORDS OF MY GRANDFATHER? You where never rightfully in the position you placed yourself in! A proxy for the House of Potter? You blocked my mail! You kept me in a magic hating muggle home! You controled every aspect of my life! You have no right to tell me what to do!"_

The 'Leader of the Light' wasnt giving up that easy: "It was for your own good! You had to be kept there, otherwise the bloodwards would have failed! You are a mere child, not ready to handle responsibility yet!"

"You mean it was for 'the Greater Good'?" came the bitter reply. "You want to tell me im not ready to handle my House and title yet, but expect me to beat the newly ressurected Voldemort? Really, old man?" Turning to Ragnok he asked: "Is he named in the Will? Could you remove him please otherwise?"

"Im dissapointed in you my boy. I tought you to be better, more mature."

 _Says the one with the childish behaviour?_

"You are going dark Harry! Its not to late to see you errors! Let me help you!", were the last words from the wizard as golbin guards shoved him out of the room.

"Going dark? Just because you cant control me anymore?", muttered Harry acidly.

"Ahm, now that these _unpleasant confrontation_ is over, lets come to the topic at hand: the Will of one Sirius Black. The King took a scroll, made of black paper and written in blood, and opened it.

 **"I, Sirius Orion Black, of right mind and body, will the following: First, every Death Eater still living shall be casted out of the Family. Secondly, Narcissa Malfoy may leave her husband and come back in the black family, or cut all legal ties with it. Third, to my good friend Remus Lupin may be given 50.000 Galleons – go and finally find a girl you old mutt! Fourth, the whole Tonks' family may get 40.000 Galleons. Yes Nymphandora, now you cant hurt me because I said your first name! Fifth, I will give to Draco Malfoy the amount of money he earned himself with so much endurance!" - at this point said boy straightened himself and shot Harry a arrogant sneer -** **"Exactly 1 Knut! Congratulations you pampered and arrogant Daddys-boy! And to my dear godson, whom I couldnt fullfil my duty to, I leave everything else. The Title of Lord Black, with everything connected to it-"**

("HE CANT DO THIS! I AM THE RIGHTFULL NEXT LORD BLACK!"

"Dispose of this loud individual please.")

 **"- and all you can squeeze out of my vaults and properties! I know that this will be not enough payback. Even less so if this Will gets read, because this means Im dead, but its the last I could do. I hope I died because an angry father or husband finally got me, but Im pretty sure thats not the case. Dont break yourself up about this. I hope I died fullfilling at least part of my duty to you – it would have been a happy death. We will meet again on the other side."**

"I-Is that all?", asked a tearstricken Harry.

"Yes, this is indeed all."

The boy stood up with shaky legs. "Then may I take my leave?"

Ragnok gave him an understanding look. "Of course. A guard will escort you to your destination."

Harry was never so thankful for Ragnok and his hinsight: As he stepped out of the room he had someone waiting for him. But it wasnt only the old man he despised so much right now, no he was there with lots of Order-members. There were Shacklebolt, Fletcher, Moody, Snape, Molly, Fred, George, Ron and even Hermione. They were currently in a heated argument with the two goblins guarding the door.

"Begone Wizard, and take the others with you! You have no power here!"

"I dont think so! We will wait until we can get to Harry and bring him to safety! Right, Albus?"

"Molly, dear, that was exactly what I was planning to do."

"All this commotion for this arrogant brat! He is like is father-"

"Dont be like that, Severus my boy, he is important."

The goblins started gnawing their teeths. "Thats your last warning you fools! I NEED BACKUP HERE!"

It was at this moment that someone noticed Harry trying to sneak his way out. "Harry mate! Over here! Come!"

 _Fuck, you and your loud mouth!_ There was this maddening twinkle again! Oh, how much he wished to punch the headmasters lights out! "Harry my boy, now that you are finished with the reading, would you please join us?"

 _Is he demented? I mean, like seriously?_

Harry couldnt even reply, he was gaping at the old fart. "Did you just say that?"

Snape interfered: "Stop beeing such a pain you arrogant-"

"Shut up you bastard."

Now the potions professor was the one gaping; and with him everybody around him.

"What? I wanted to say that for a long time."

The following reactions were of course completely predictable. The twins started worshipping him, Hermione was scandalized, together with Molly, Moody gave a troathy chuckle, Ron pumped his fist in the air and shouted something like "Nice one mate!" And Dumbledore wore his disapproving and disappointed look again.

"My boy, thats not something you should say to your professor. You will apologize now and show him the proper respect. After that we will be on our way." Harry didnt even dignify the old coot with a response, he just turned to the goblin and asked him to lead the way. Said guide nodded, and started moving. Of course the KFC didnt make way for them, and Dumbledore even started to say something before he was tackled down with his fellow members by two dozen gobins in heavy arms – the 'backup' had arrived.

 _Finally some peace and quiet. Goblins are awesome._ As the young wizard turned around a corner and went out of sight, the great 'Leader of the Light' made a gruesome discovery as he was pressed to the ground.

 _He is turning dark! I should have waited with telling him the prophercy! Now we have to focus even more ressources on keeping him in the light and under control. Its for the Greater Good._

* * *

The rest of the day Harry fleed himself into the studies of the Lord. He didnt like the way the confrontation had taken and neither did he like the aritcle Skeeter wrote about him -'Potter now one of the richest wizards, could we even control him if he starts a coup?' -, he was sure that he had to be even more careful later. If Dumbledore somehow found out about his powers, there would be hell to pay. At least he was pretty sure he had a small advantage over Tommy; the 'Power he knows not' was defintely not love and way more useful. He said he would honor the title of his ancestor, and he would do so.

 _ **"These Powers shouldnt be used lighty, but neither should someone else control you and your actions – and with this the power. If you fear confrontation, you have already lost. At first I was careful too. I argued with myself that I could simply outlife my enemys and start anew. Bullshit. Use this power! Even if you try to resist, it will make you WANT to use it. The mist and everything else is not sentient, dont get me wrong, but it has a certain...**_ **quality** _ **to it, even with all my intelligence I cant describe it better. But I dont have to – you will feel it yourself soon enough, trust me."**_

At first Harry wasnt sure what to make about this statement, but as the days passed he could at least feel _something. It was like an itch he couldnt scratch, and it became worse and worse. Even practicing his new spells (the normal ones the most, he didnt want to waste his life force_ _that much) wasnt enough. He_ _had to fight with this power! At first he ignored it. Then the teen started to search distraction, but soon that proved to be useless. He started making plans for Hogwarts and how to show himself there, but was getting frustrated after only a short amount of time. As even his elfes started to avoid him, he finally cracked._

"It has no use, I _need to do something."_

But how should he proceed? It wasnt like he was able to just stroll to some Death Eaters and kill them... He nearly hoped for another raid, but found himself with a different solution: The Forbidden Forrest housed many different species, and even tough he held nothing personal against Hagrids spider, the boy looked at this matter differently: It was about his survival.

Harry shivered as he walked trough the dimly lighted woods. Bad memories came back to the surface, completely with the wrath named Voldemort that attacked him here in first year. This time there was at least no unicorn blood on the ground, even tough the idea of fighting such a being oddly excited him. It was completely silent; his feet sunk deep in the mix of moss and wood splinters that littered the muddy earth. Dobby popped him over after a short argument, the elf wasnt really happy about the fact that he would leave his master alone again. The wizard was clad in black muggle clothes, consisting of jeans, jacket and combat boots. His appearance was maybe intimidating, but defenceless. He hoped dearly that his wand and mist would be enough to keep him safe, counting on the fact that the spiders may be abnormaly large but still not able to cast spells or be completely magic-supressing. The young Lord was surprised that he met no centaurs and hurried along, not wishing to press his luck. He was definetly able to fight them, but they were not his target. Time went by, and the boy slowly calmed down.

At first the completely silent environment made him uneasy, but now it was relaxing, it felt natural. Unknown to Harry his eyes eminated a soft glow, mist was left swirling behind after every step he made. Finally he was at his destination, where he and Ron had the confrontation with the big beasts. He didnt even know how he found his way back, but that was of no concern right now.

 _I know that you are here... Come on, show yourself!_

He didnt voice his toughts, wanted to keep the blissfull silence a little longer. Behind him snapped a large branch. All hell broke loose. The mist saved his life: It knocked him out of harms way and catched him gently afterwards, only a fragment of a second later hungry fangs penetrated the air where he stood before. But the creature wasnt alone, from every direction the hungry monsters attacked. Harry followed his instincts, his brain not even really registering what was happening, keeping him in these stance of peace and marking the rest under the category 'not concerning'.

It was no battle but a elegant and swift dance between Harry and his silky companion. He swirled trough his enemies, bombarding them with dark explosive blasts, making them rain in pieces on the battleground. Every sound was absent, even as he blowed up a set of trees. The quiet stayed. Sometimes he varied between these and his absorbtion, but without drowning his surroundings in black in favor of watching with an absent, curious expression. A crude observer may say he looked like Luna Lovegood. A bloodied, killing, dancing and male Luna Lovegood.

The peace only left him as he arrived at his mansion via portkey; the light was blinding him and the blabbering servants destroyed the quiet. He tought back to what he had done, surprised that he felt again nothing. No remorse, no hate, not even happyness. Ignoring his elves as the pushed him in the bathroom, he had only one notion.

 _I want this feeling back. I have never felt so at peace, so calm. No worries, no ideas about me and the future, just this soothing feeling._ He would hunt again.

* * *

The last days before he would connect back with the school he once called his home were pretty _normal._ Nothing new happened, except that a lingerning echo of the peace was still in the back of his mind and made many things easier. If he wouldnt know it better he would say somebody was pleased with him and was revarding him for it. He could feel himself getting stronger too, there was no visible change but he was able to carry very heavy load for minimal effort. The young wizard was still not sure how to treat Dumbles and his KFC, but let them stay in Grimauld Place for now – that didnt mean he wasnt prepared, he talked with Ragnok and got the answer he wanted: He could kick them out with a word and his new Black-ring, which he wore on his other hand. He had a plan for the Hogwarts Express: He would use a disguise to not start an argument with his 'friends' – he was still not really happy with them, but if they apologized he would give them a new, last chance – because he wanted to be left in peace, at least _one freaking time._ The boy wanted to see how they handled the fact that he gave them no information and whether they would show themselves to be hypocrites.

* * *

It wasnt long until school started again and William Anderson climbed into the big train. He wasnt really that different, just highlighting his aristocratic features a little, with make-up over his trice-damned-scar. His hair was short and styled – at first he looked like Malfoy, and after hitting his head multiple times to loose the image in his head, he made sure _not_ to look like the 'pampered Daddys-boy'. He wore muggle jeans and his hoody, his trunk was spelled feather-light and shrunken in his pocket.

"Now I just have to find an apartment...", mumored the disguised one. He still wasnt sure why there were _never empty apartments. It made no sense – why making the train so small?_

 _I bet its because of the twinkling Fool, maybe he wants to 'promote more cooperation'._

He neared the back of the train, resignied that he would have to share with somebody nosy – his luck run that way – until he heard an argument.

"Go away!"

"I dont think so! I know how you look down at us, how you see yourself and your bitches as superior! This time IM in charge!"

"I said go away! I have never done anything to you!"

Harry nearly was past the apartment – hey, it wasnt his concern, it was pretty easy to supress his 'helping people thing' – until he heard a smack and a whimper, which freezed him to the spot.

"SHUT UP! Dont try to make yourself look innocent!"

After a choked "help" there was a flash from a spell. Obviously the aggressor remembered silencing spells. Harry _really wished for a un-troubled train ride, but this time he couldnt supress his desire to help._

"Im going to _so_ fucking regret this!", cursed he under his breath as he turned and went back to the door. The knob wouldnt buge, so obviously there was a silencing _and_ a locking spell, but nothing he couldnt handle. The boy took a deep breath, and focused his Life Force into his right hand. He wanted to try this anyway.

* * *

Daphne Greengrass had no good day. First she slept in with her sister and they had to rush to the train. _Then_ she remembered that she forgot her potions-book at home – she had to study beforehand because Snape wanted NO mistakes made on the Slytherin side – and if that wasnt enough already, as she started to chat with her best friend Tracy Davis, her sister Astoria Greengrass silently listening, as this idiot came into their apartment. She had no idea what his problem was, heck she didnt even know his name.

From the look of it he was a seventh-year, a big one at that and he obviously didnt like her. She could live with that. But then he started to make accusations. She could live with that, barely. And then he hit her. Enough is enough. But as she started to curse him she got sight of a problem. He had his wand pointed at her sister. And her sister was pressed against him as a hostage. Her head was still swirling after the attack and her sister only managed a choked "help" before the bully casted a silencing and locking spell at the door.

"Now, you stuck up bitch, I will make you pay!", he gave a cruel grin. Daphne glanced to her friend, who was shaking. Tracy was scared and didnt even tought about her wand.

"I have never done anything to you! Please, just leave us alone!" The grin widened.

"Already begging you slut? If you try hard enough I may even consider it. But I think-"

Before he could finish his sentence the door exploded and crashed against his back. With an angry grunt he spun around, kicking Astoria into her sister in the process, wand-tip glowing and a curse on his lips. Only to get punched in the gut. Hard. As he doubled over, a hand closed around his windpipe, pulling him in the air and crashing him against the wall.

"I think they told you to leave."

The bigger boy, not able to speak and hex him because of his closed windpipe, tried to knock him away with kicking arms and legs, only to stop in favor of grabbing the hand that was choking him as his face slowly changed colour.

"So you should leave the next time. And now you should apologize. Understood?"

The fear in the other boys eyes grew larger and larger, he nodded as best as he could in his position – he didnt want to die! As he nearly gave up hope, and his vision was littered with black spots, the strange boy let him go. After taking some ragged breaths, he looked up to the three girls, gave with trembling legs a whimpered apology and scrambled out of the apartments. He definetly would let the Greengrass bitch be. Definetly.

Harry looked at the retreating form of the bully, gave a satisfied nod and repared the door with a mumbled incarnation. After that he turned to the three occupants of the apartment he barged into. Two were blonde, sisters as it looked, the last one was brunette. The sisters both had cold blue eyes and sharp features. The older one had long, golden hair that was bound in a pony-tail, a pretty big chest and pale skin. She had the beginnings of a black eye forming. The other had her hair cut short, with one bang covering her left eye a little. Her chest was waaay smaller, and her hair was a little bit ligther, in contrast her skin was darker than her sisters, but not by much. The brunette had her hair open flowing over her shoulders and back to her chest and shoulderblades. Her features were softer, her skin got the same color then the smaller blonde and she looked the most shocked by the latest happenings – she was still trembling a little and made as much space as possible between her and Harry.

"Everything alright ladies?" Silence. "Hello?"

"Um, w-who are you?" asked the smallest of the girls meekly.

 _Ah, they dont know me, so they fear me..._

He could see the other two slowly reaching for their wands. The boy gave a calming smile.

"No need to be afraid. I wont hurt you." They didnt look at him like he was an enemy, but still raised their magical focus. Harry, not fazed at all by the two wooden sticks pointed at him, sat himself next to the door, holding his hands up in the universal sign for surrender.

"No need to threathen me. Lets make a deal, ok?" Taking the silence as a sign to continue he said:" I will answer your questions and stay here, next to the door so I can leave fast, ok? But only if you at least lower your wands, Im not really a fan of getting cursed." The older blonde gave a court nod after looking to her friend for confirmation. "Then, give me your questions." The smile never left his face.

The smaller girl spoke first: "You still have not answered my question."

"Ah, who I am? Mhh... my name is William Anderson, and-"

"Liar!" The boy blinked dumbly.

 _Ah, she is a bubbly one._

"Why do you think that?"

"Our father trained us to know as much as you can about your environment. We know all of the names for our two years, and a 'William Anderson' is definetly not listed there. And-" she squinted her eyes and looked him over, "-Im pretty sure that we would remembere a face like yours."

 _Sharp, the interesting question is now, how I should handle this. He didnt count on the fact that somebody would question him like this on the train; a grave mistake._

"So, who are you _really_?" It was suprising, that only the youngest one was talking to him, the other two girls were perfectly content with watching his every movement, one of them looked confident, the other still fearful.

 _I saved them, and they still are so wary? Unfortunate... His smile died, the girls tensed as he went his hand trough his hair. "Can you keep a secret?" The girls shared glances between each other. The brunette nodded. "Then I will tell you, but you have to promise me that you will keep silent. Please."_

"As long as it doesnt bring us in danger, you got at least the right of our silence. You deserve as much." That was the older blonde, her voice was cold and reserved.

 _Hurray. But I wont get more from them... Harry sighted and grabbed for his wand._

"I have to undo the glamour, please let me."

Then he pointed the wooden stick at himself and whispered under his breath. The glamour was done with a little Life Force, to make it resistant against detection.

* * *

Daphne was confused. At first it looked like everything went to hell, but this stranger showed up and saved them. Normally she would have thanked him, kicked him out afterwards and comforted her friend and sister. But this was definetly not normal. She didnt know his name, that was suprising but he could be from a different year. But Astoria didnt know his name either. Still not necessarily a problem. But she had never seen him before! THAT was suspicious, she could blame the current situation tough. No, even tough all these different things were unusual, the part that made her wary of the boy was the way how he saved them. He blasted a door down, picked a bigger and stronger boy up _-_ _with one hand! - and nearly choked him to death. He gave off an aura of evil as he did this, but it went away afterwards. Still, the feeling lingered in her, especially because he didnt even had his wand out! How did he nearly pulverize a door, sealed with a locking-charm_ _WITHOUT A WAND_? That was the reason she kept her guard up, like Tracy did next to her.

The glamour was ended. The features of the young wizard rippled shortly, like the water of a sea after someone threw a stone in. Now, there was nothing much that changed, his hair kept the same clour, his body the same height and his eyes kept their green, the colour was only slightly different than before. His cheekbones and facial expression changed the most, but nothing too much. He looked a little more _normal_ you could say. Evil tongues may even tell he looked more _human_ than before. Astoria raised an eyebrow. She was the unconcerned of the three, which was the reason that she was the one speaking for all of them.

"I still dont know you." The boy smirked.

"I will introduce myself properly, if you do the same ladies."

 _He doesnt know us? Or is it a trap? This time Daphne spoke up, annoyed from the game he tried to play._

"My name is Daphne Greengrass, thats my sister Astoria Greengrass and my good friend Tracy Davis. Now tell us your name!" The smirk grew bigger.

"Lovely names for lovely ladies I can tell? Now, you may have heard from me-" here he stood up and gave an bow that could be seen as mocking "- my name is Harry James Potter-Black."

Ok, she expected many things, but that he was the 'golden boy' definetly not. That he was Lord Black wasnt suprising, the Daily Prophet made sure to slander him because he 'was only one step away from overthrowing the Ministry'.

" _You_ are Harry Potter? I have seen you before, and you may resemble him, but first he looks not like this, and second he wouldnt have the balls and neither the strenght to do what you just did. And where is the scar, huh?"

Now his _smirk_ seemed mocking, oh how she wished to kick him right now _._

"Should I feel insulted that you think Im some weak fool or should I prove my point?"

He wished over his forehead – _was that make-up? - and indeed; there was the famous symbol. Daphne crashed back on her seat, her wand forgotten._

"Next question."

She would wipe this damned smirk of his face, even if this was the last thing she would do! Astoria was unfazed by this relevation and asked the next question.

"If you are fucking Harry Potter-"

"Language!"

"-then why the fuck-"

 _sigh_

"-would you want us to keep that as a secret?"

The Boy-who-lived frowned.

"I had a rather _unfortunate relevation, and a little fallout afterwards... So I would like to avoid my friends for a while."_

"That I can understand, but still: How did you break the door like this?"

He learned forward, creating an aura of secrety, a completely serious face looked at the girls. Three faces, with expressions like deers catched by a headlight looked back. "That... Is... _a secret."_ He couldnt help himself but laugh at their adorable pouts. "Fun aside, I cant tell you this just now – I have met you, like, twenty minutes before?"

"You have a point... but that doesnt mean we have to be happy about it." Harry leaned back, relaxed.

"Something agaisnt me joining you for the ride?" This time Tracy answered, she seemed to come to terms with the latest events.

"You are already here, so you can make yourself at home... where is your trunk?"

"In my pocket." Astoria giggled.

"Sure that that is wise? If you damage it, it will grow to it original size..."

As on cue, there was a deep tearing sound and the boy found himself sitting on his trunk – with the last bits of his jeans hanging around his waist. He blushed furiously, like the other occupants – except Astoria. She was to busy shaking with laugher.

"Umm... That wasnt planned?" He was able to repare his jeans, but not his dignity. The next half an hour nobody could look straight in the eye of another without consequences. Still, the ride was one of his more relaxed ones – that was until someone else had the nerve to barge in the apartment.

 _Ron and Hermione, of course the ones I didnt want to talk to right now... Yey._

"HARRY! We searched everywhere! Where did you go!? Why didnt you contact us?! Why didnt you come with us or helped with the goblins?! Why didnt you listen to Dumbledore?! Why-"

He blended her out after the first few questions. _Hypocrites... Now I have to defend myself? I didnt do anything wrong! Finally in the brains of the 'brightest witch her age' registered the fact that Harry wasnt listening._

"Harry James Potter, dont you dare ingore me! Answer me!" He could see Daphne giving him sympathic looks. Ron registered that.

"Are you dumb?! You abadon us and now you keep company with filthy Slytherins?! Mate I-"

 **"Shut up." At least that worked. They both looked at him dumbly, blinking.**

 _That was the same aura he used as he was trashing the bully... Something didnt add up with Harry Potter, and she would definetly find the reason for this, that sweared Daphne. Of course Hermione wouldnt keep silent for long._

"Dont be like that! I-"

 **"I. Said. Shut. Up." Now she looked more like a fish, gaping. To make it matters worse, the door opened again. This time Draco Malfoy the 'daddys-boy' walked in with his two goons, his trademark sneer on his face.**

 _Of course... somebody upstairs really hates me... at least he will give me a reason to beat him to a pulp, that im sure of._

"Dont you think you are somebody special Potter! You stole what is rightfully mine! And now Im gonna take it back!"

The arrogant git already had his wand drawn. It still wasnt enough. Harry moved with astounding speed and gave the blonde an powerful uppercut.

Now you have to know, most wizards use magic for everything they do, feeling better about themselves in the progress. But this made them depended on magic. They will attack you with it, and expect you to strike back by magical means. So it isnt suprising, that Draco Malfoy was one of these wizards. The uppercut catched him completely by suprise, he was only prepared to dodge a spell and couldnt even get his wand pointed at his foe. The blonde git crashed to the ground. Silence reigned. The bushy bookworm was still gaping, even more so, Ron looked like Christmas had come early and Crabbe and Goyle were not sure how to react, now that the one who gave them their jobs was on the ground, out cold.

"Hm, I should have went easier on him. Kicking knocked out people is no fun at all." Harry scratched his head sheepishly. He turned to the two goons. "Take you boss and fuck of, would you kindly?" The a-little-dumber-than-average boys looked at each toher, shrugged, picked up their boss and left.

"Mate, that was AWESOME! How you handled him! An them! I wish I had the stones to do that! You-" "Ron! Honestly! How can you encourage this behaviour?"

 _Why are you always loud Ron? Now she snapped out of it... Hermione wasnt finished with her rant._

"We will get in trouble for this!" hissed she. "Do you have any idea-"

A beam of light hit her head from behind. She was still talking – able to hear herself – but nobody else could make out what she said. Harry raised an eyebrow. Astoria found herself blushing embarassed. "Um, Im sorry? But she was talking all the time, and I dont like her voice and I-"

"Can you teach me that spell?"

"Yes I wont do it again, she is you friend and..." The gril trailed off. "What?"

"Can you teach me the spell?" both boys asked again at the same time. "..." "Please?" "Ummmmm... ok? If you stop talking like this?"

"YES!"

Before she could blink, she had two teenager – one of them who scared her sister and friend at first, the other with red hair – worshipping her. Astoria looked dumbly to Daphne. Daphne and Tracy looked back with the same expression. Hermione was trying to get their attention. The younger blonde finally kicked them off her feet. She pointed at Ron.

"You... are weird."

The boy finally realized what he was doing – to an slimy Slytherin no less! With a start he jumped up and hurried back to Hermione. Now Harry had a finger pointed in his face.

"And you..." Here he looked at her hopefully. "Are _extremly_ weird." His head smashed against the ground.

Suddenly he stood again, as nothing had happened.

"Sooo, nobody saw that."

He faced Hermione, and lifted the charm with a mumbled 'finite'. As he saw her taking a deep breath he pointed his wand back at her. The girl gave him a horrified look. "Now, you listen." Nobody argued.

"I dont give a fuck if you think what I did was wrong, or the way I did it, because he had it coming Hermione. I neither give a fuck that you think I should keep company with these girls Ron." Both gave him angry stares.

"Ok, I know when Im not wished! Come Hermione, let the famous git have his way with his slytherin-whores! You see how he feels about us!" Ron always had a foot in his mouth, but this time he crossed the line. He found himself choking on a hand and at the receiving end of two deadly glowing, green eyes. The boy-who-lived whispered next to his – former – friend ear.

 **"Now listen, you jealous, single-minded prat. Listen closely. I tought you would be more understanding than the pureblood-bigots, but you are obviously on the same boat. If you dont like them, ok. If you insult me, ok. But never** _ **never**_ **again talk about them like this just because you are a blind pig! Understood?"** Ron whimpered like a certain bully, and fled the apartment, Hermione close behind him. She tought Dumbledore was overreacting, but of course he wasnt. This new Harry scared her **.**

 _I have to tell the headmaster that we cant get trough him._

The young Lord sat down again. "Im sorry how he called you names." He got an warm smile as answer – from all three of them.

"Thats fine Harry. It wasnt something new. And the way you defended us really showed your honesty." _And made me a little hot. Added Daphne in the safety of her own mind. The boy beamed._

"Thanks! Can I stay after all this?"

This time Tracy spoke up. "But of course! It wasnt your fault, nothing of this."

The next hour was spend quietly chatting. They told each other stories about their lives and just had a good time. Both sides had to replace many 'facts' about Slytherins or the boy-who-lived respectively.

But all good things come to an end, a prove of that was the voice who told them that they only had a few minutes left.

They had arrived at Hogwarts!


	4. Chapter 3

**The Lord of Life  
**

 **AN:** Here is the next chapter! :D Thanks for your support! Yes, I may get a beta-reader but at the moment my own skills have to be enough... Nothing more to say, so without further slowing down:

 **Disclaimer: Read Prolog**

 **Chapter 3**

Voldemort was definetly _not_ happy. Lucius was in Askaban, together with some of his best fighters. To raise the moral, he let his underlings attack and plunder as much as they wanted, as long as they reportet their doing to him.

And then a whole team of them died.

That alone was unfortunate, but no reason to panic. The problem was, that neither Aurors nor Dumbledore killed them – they got completely annihilated by _one man._ An _unknown_ man. He used magic like never done before, and even used something like a smokescreen to prevent his secrets from getting identified. Clever, but he was obviously not very fond of his Death Eaters. The filthy rat was of course put under the crutiatus-curse, but Wormtail _was_ from use.

Voldemort hummed in tought – he was alone, the Daeth Eater who found him humming would be dead before he could tell the tale.

"My Lord?" The voice woke him up from his scheming.

"Ah, Bella." His most loyal Death Eater was kneeling before him, face first on the cold stone. Bellatrix Lestrange was a feared fighter, able to duell multiple people at once and come out on top. She had long, black hair and light skin, and was completely devoted to him. Her sadistic streak was well known, as was her face. Most of the time she didnt even wear her mask. It was for no use anyway.

"You called Master, how may I serve you?"

"I want you to bring the new recruits on par with the others. We need them ready as fast as possible." He had lost too many followers in too short time. The recruits would be fast cannon food, but they could be at least a useful distraction. She looked up, eyes full of fanatical devotion.

"It shall be done, My Lord."

"Good. Go." Voldemort started planning again. The mysterius man was seen once only. A pity. If he wouldnt be able to recruit him, he would destroy the imposter! Nobody had the same power as he! If he ddint know his place, he would be squashed like bug. That sweared he, Lord Voldemort, the _one and only_ Dark Lord.

* * *

The weather was good and the four students were able to pick a carriage for themselves, and just enjoyed each others company as long as possible. They all wished to meet again like this, but Hogwarts was still a place full of prejudices and resentment. Harry told the girls that he could ignore just everybody else in favor of speaking with them again in such a friendly manner, but they forbid him to pull trough with his idea. They already came to terms with the new facts. They underestimated the boy-who-lived tough.

"I will find a way.", he told them. He especially wanted to talk with the funny and intelligent older Greengrass again, now that he had the chance to get to know her a little bit better.

"I wont continue the DA, at least not like before, so that could be a starting point." The green-eyed youth gave them a confident grin. "Otherwise I will annouce an official alliance between our houses."

Astoria swatted him over his head.

"You cant just make an alliance 'official', especially not with us just out of the blue!" A mock pout was her answer.

"And why not? Are you against it?" Daphne, seeing her younger sister busy with facepalming, just sigthed. He may have been more dangerous and confident – and maybe a little bit more _attractive –_ but he was still not really good with this stuff.

"We never said that we were against it. But we have to speak with out parents about it first. We are not like you; we dont hold the power of two ancient and noble houses at our disposal and are even _head_ of them. You may be able to speak for the Potters and Blacks, but we are only the heirs, not the actual heads and leader." Harry tapped his chin toughtfully.

"So I tell you, you tell your parents, they tell me, and I tell the whole school and community? Okay."

" _Its not as easy as that!_ " He seemed surprised.

"Its not?" Tracy started giggling. With a groan, Daphne gave up. As they moved in the great hall, they had to part ways. He definetly got more curious looks then he expected.

 _Maybe its because of this Potter-Black thing? Or maybe they stare because I was talking with Slytherins?_

It was neither of both, the students were not really able to place him. He was obviously a Gryffindor, and had something distinctly familiar, but _who_ was he? The mysterious boy ignored the stares and wishpers, and had a fierce battle with Albus Dumbledore. The had looked eyes after some moments, and neither of them wanted to look away first. The headmaster looked concerned, angry and something Harry couldnt really identify. Concern? Fear? Curiosity? He wasnt sure. Finally the old man broke the contact in favor of following the sorting. Then he stood up and gave his yearly speech.

"Welcome students of new and old! Some words of concern on my behalf before we tuck in! Firstly, the list of forbidden items got updated! You may-" the young Lord turned him out. It was propably the same as every year anyway. He looked up again as Dumbledore came to an end.

"I would like to introduce Horace Slughorn to you, he will be the teacher for potions this year." The chubby man stood and gave a gallatant bow, his bald head littered with straw blond hair gave host for a enthusiastic smile.

 _Wait, he teaches potions?_ Harry had a bad feeling about this.

"Our all liked teacher Severus Snape will teach you Defence against the Dark Arts instead." Groaning Harrys head crashed on the table.

 _There goes my favourite subject..._

"Now, lets tuck in!" The boy was definetly not able to be as happy as the headmaster made himself to be. Of course the year had to be even _more_ difficult. Finally Harry noticed the stares from his housemates. He gave them a challenging look and kept eating. If they wanted to get answers, they had to ask him. And they wouldnt get answers from ron or Hermione, they placed themselves at the other end of the table.

 _Good. I really dont want to argue with them_ again.

Katie Bell obviously couldnt stand the silence any longer and chose to ask the starnge newcomer.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Harry gave her a mocking grin. "You hurt me Bell, you forgot about me already? After all the games I won for you?"

"What are you trying to say..." Her confused face – which was pretty cute by the way, found Harry – made place for an expression of utter shock. "HARRY?" Gasps were heard.

"You know Bell, I may like your voice but you dont have to shout like this. Im not deaf."

"How did you change like this? Where are your glasses? Why didnt you tell us?" His grin never wavered – he trained it infront of the mirror long enough to be able to keep it up all the time, he was arogant like that – and he held one hand up in a calming gesture.

"Dont get your knickers in a twist-" here her face started burning due to the unexpected remark "- I will try to answer, but one at a time. We have no pressing matters at the moment. And I like to spend more _time_ with you." He couldnt help but laugh at he spluttering. Making girls blush was fun! He had to try this more often.

"So, what was your first question?" He tapped his chin toughtfully. "Ahh, how I changed?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I have honestly no idea. But what ever happened, it fixed my eyes too, so no glasses anylonger." He raised an eyebrow. "And why I didnt tell you? It isnt something of your concern _and_ it happened not long ago. It was definetly no bad will on my side." His grin turned lecherous.

 _Her blush went away..._ He bent forward and whispered in the ear of the poor girl.

" _But I have no problems if you want to_ punish _me._ " Katie gave a shriek and nearly fell backwards. Harry gave her an innocennt smile. "Are you ok? You look a little bit.. _hot_."

"Imok! Imok! Imok!" He should tone it down a bit. But he definetly accomplished his goal, her face could light a whole town without energy. From the corner of his eyes the boy could see at least half of the Gryffindors staring.

"What?" They turned away again and started eating.

* * *

Katie Bell didnt know what hit her. First she got shocked because this new student was a changed – in a good, a _very_ good way changed – Harry Potter, and then he _flirted_ with her! And he did this completely relaxed! The changes were obviously not only his appearance but his whole demanor! Her cheeks were still burning, and he was eating nonchalant like nothing happened! Suddenly deep green orbs filled her vision – he looked up! She averted her eyes embarassed, but could still see the smirk he gave her. Caught! Why did her make her feel like this? She had to come to terms first with this new Harry Potter.

 _Potter-Black, its Potter-Black now._ The witch shouldnt forget this fact, he was now even more important than before.

* * *

Was flirting a new hobby Potters? His behaviour was obiviously new for his housemates as well, at least Bell looked pretty surprised tought Daphne.

 _What did he say to her to make her blush that bad?_ He was a charmer on the train, definetly, but not really blunt to make them blush like that.

"Are you checking him out?"

"Huh?" Of course Tracy had to see it. Shit.

"What are you talking about?" Tracy gave a mischievous grin.

"~Dont deny it Daphne~" Of course she had to sing-song it. And of course she couldnt let it be. Daphne gave an inward groan.

"Im talking about Potter, you are staring at him like he could implode every moment. Did he catch your _interest_?"

"Stuff it Tracy."

"Aww, did I hit a nerv?"

"Dont tell me the idea never crossed your mind." Tracys face started burning.

"No-I-that wasnt the topic!" she spluttered. Now Daphne did grin.

"But to be honest, Im not able to solve the puzzle that is Harry Potter. I _hate_ when I cant solve something."

"And because of this you stalk him?" Now both girls had scarlet faces. To make matters worse, as they looked back to the person of interest, he looked right back. The grin he wore made them shiver unconsciously.

* * *

Of course Harrys fun couldnt last. After the feast, he was approached by McGonnagall.

"The Headmaster wishes to speak with you in his office. The password is lollipop." The boy kept his face carefully blank and nodded. As he climbed the stairs to the great 'Leader of the Light' he was working on a lie to feed the nosy old man.

"Come in." The young lord nearly scoffed at the games Dumbledore played to make himself more opposing. It was propably a charm that told him somebody was close to the door. He walked in. The office looked as strange and full as ever, multiple instruments with strange use and even stranger origin littered the place.

 _He was able to replace everything I destroyed?_ That would have been a shit load of work... Fawkes completely ignored the newcomer and stared at the sorting hat, which (maybe) did the same to the phoenix. And in the middle of the chaos, behind his desk, composed as ever and wearing the robes of colorblindess sat Dumbledore, like the great leader of madness, showing his grandfatherly smile.

"Sit down my boy. We have things to discuss."

 _More like you want information._

* * *

Albus Dumbledore wasnt sure what to make of the situation. At first he was worried that Harry was kidnapped, but he showed up at the reading od Sirius' Will. Then, the old man was worried about the fact that Harry did _know_ about the reading, and the boy didnt cooperate at all – the young boy even kicked him out of the room. So he feared that Harry was going dark. The fact that he seperated himself from his friends strenghtened this. But he behaved completely normal! And not like Tom Riddle, who was charming and endearing, but kept mostly to himself if he had noting to gain. Harry instead started flirting with his peers. Not that Dumbledore didnt approve, but he couldnt really place the young boy. He feared that a wrong move may make him go astray, so he had to get information.

Careful of course.

The first negative sign was the fact that the boy sat himself without greeting the Headmaster, keeping a carefully blank face. Of course he still could read him – Dumbledore _was_ experienced – but definetly not as good. Even his passive legimency didnt help much. He didnt use real legimency - hey, he was not evil -, just picking up surface toughts. But when he looked at Harry, he could see only darkness... That was indeed troubling. He had to very, _very_ careful. If he actually was going dark, the wrong approach could make matters worse.

 _I should try a friendly approach. If this doesnt work I will try to be open and honest. Maybe a mutual agreement?_ "How was your summer?"

* * *

"How was your summer?" Was he serious? Or was he demented?

 _Im thinking the last part pretty often, maybe he IS demented._

"My house burned down, but otherwise it was great." Harry said sarcastically.

"Yes, about that, could you please explain what happened?"

"I could."

Silence. After some minutes of waiting, Dumbledore pressed on.

"Will you?" Harry narrowed his eyes.

"And why should I?"

"Because thats vital information my boy, so we need it."

"You mean vital information like the prophercy?", hissed Harry. "Or the fact that Voldemort could use my scar to kill us? You mean vital information like this? And Im NOT your _boy._ "

* * *

 _I feared it would go like this._

The twinkle in Dumbledores eyes died. He looked way older than before.

"I didnt withold that information to endanger you Harry."

"And you still did." The teen was angry, his eyes were shining with rage.

"Please, let me explain Harry." pleaded the Headmaster "I tried to protect you."

"And you did a piss-poor job-" The old man held his hand up.

"I know that I made mistakes, and unfortunately you had to feel most of them. Please, let us start anew?"

* * *

Harry wasnt convinced. He still held lots of anger towards the old fool. But the man _seemed_ honest, even desperate.

 _I want him to treat me like an adult. For this I have to act like an adult too..._ He took a deep breath, supressing his emotions as good as possible.

"Continue."

Dumbledore gave a grateful smile. "I would like to apologize for the mistakes I made concerning you. I will try to be as honest as I can with you." At Harrys nod he continued. "A new player joined the war Harry, a man with strange but deadly abilities."

He didnt notice the slight widening of the boys eyes. "He eliminated Death Eaters on a raid, killed them without mercy. I fear that he will try to overcome Tom and take his place, so you are in more danger than ever before." Harry remained silent, but nodded. "This place is still save for you, and I wanted to warn you at the reading, and bring you to safety."

Now Harry spoke up.

"By all respect, Headmaster, but I was perfectly safe. I spent my time at Potter Manor. I can understand your reasons, but the decisions are still mine to make." Dumbledore gave a sigh.

"I understand. Potter Manor isnt the safest place, but you have a point. I was in the wrong to try and force you."

"Good, we both can agree to this. I know that you wanted a 'normal' childhood for me, but you should trust me more. And Im not really worried about this new 'Dark Lord', here at Hogwarts I will be in mortal danger anyway." The old mans eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"How can you say something like this?" Harry rolled his eyes, and started counting.

"First year, the troll and Quirrel."

A second finger was pointed upwards. "Second year, the basilisk."

A third finger. "Third year, Dementors and my parents traitor."

Fourth Finger. "Fourth year, the tri-wizard-tournament. Is that enough?"

"You have a point. So, you are the new Lord Black I believe?"

"Indeed I am."

"Could you please let Grimauld Place stay open for the Order? As compensation, I would like to offer you private lessons with me." The boy looked toughtfully.

"I will let you use Grimauld Place, but I dont really want private lessons. But we could make a deal?"

"Im listening my boy."

 _I dont think I can break this habit of his. Ah, then Im 'his boy' I guess._

"You give me permission to wander the halls after curfey, and tell me if there is something important. I will give you updates on my progress, ok?"

"That sounds fair. Was that all?"

"Im have nothing mote to say, expect the fact that I wont take shit from proffessors and students alike." The old man raised a eyebrow.

"My boy, you should pay the people the respect they deserve, nothing less and noting more. Harry had to forcefully suppress a grin.

"Of course Headmaster, if you say so. I will try and be as respectful as they deserve." Dumbledore nodded, satisfied.

"Then I may tell the other teachers that you have no curfey and bid you a good night."

"Good night, proffessor." As they parted ways, they both tought the same.

 _"That went better than expected."_

* * *

Harry wanted the no-curfey-rule to make good use of the Room of Requirement. He even had planned to go there if Ron and Hermione pissed him off too much, but that may be in vayne – they knew about it too. He would have to try and make the entrance safe against them.

The former Lord created spells using Life Force to ward entrances, secret passages and so on, but the boy wasnt sure he could actually use them in Hogwarts. The castle was ancient, drenched in magic and with some impressive enchantments. Harry would have to try rather sooner than later, but he wanted to gather at least enough Life Force to actually sustain himself for a longer period of time. The hunt he made gave him a little bit of piece, but he was burning trough his reserves at a alarming rate – the second reason for the no-curfey-rule. Now, there came the confrontation with the people he really didnt want to see at the moment. The Gryffindors.

As Harry made his way to the fat lady, he was seriously tempted to just walk past the painting. But that would be stupid. It wasnt like he resented all of them, it was more the way they behaved from time to time. They were too fast to make conclusions, and it was nearly impossible to change their mind. They didnt defend him, casted him out multiple times. A little bit like his 'best mate'; all the time jealus and acting like a git, but afterwards crawling back. Ron because of the fame, the other Gryffindors because of Quidditch. He wouldnt play this year, even tough he was impatiently waiting to play again the whole time under Umbitch. Harry wanted to distance himself from them; he was pretty sure he wouldnt be able to stay undercover for ever. They would cast him out after that anyway.

As he stepped trough the opening, nobody payed him much attention.

 _Lucky me..._

Ron and Hermione still tried to ignore him, what made room for some whispering, but nothing extraordinary. Harry gave the occupants of the room a short nod, before he went up to his dorm, jumped on his bed and closed the curtains. After a short pause, filled with intense concentration, some mist climbed up the fabric and sealed it from the inside. Satisfied, the boy closed his eyes. He wouldnt take shit from anybody tomorrow - _especially not from Snape! -_ so he needed rest.

 _I will hunt at the weekends..._

* * *

Harry woke up, feeling wonderfully rested, and made his way downstairs after finsihing his moring rituals. He would sit today at an other house-table, hopefully provoking Snape in the process. A cruel smile made its way on his lips. Dumbledore gave him with his wording a free pass to do as he pleased. He shouldnt overdo it of course – the old fool should see him as a threat, only as an pissed of teenager. But as long as he knew his limits...

 _Not even Snape will be safe, especially not Snape. I wont get expelled, Dumbledore doesnt want to loose me._

The grin wished to wide, but he calmed himself down. No reason to make them suspicious, mused the boy as he walked in the Great Hall. Snape was there already.

Good.

The young Lord made his way over to the Ravenclaws, placing himself next to Luna Lovegood, a girl with light skin, dirty blonde hair and an spaced out expression. She was a year under the boy.

"Hello Harry..." The dreamy girl wore a happy smile. Harry smiled back.

"Hi Luna. How is it going?"

"Good, but I fear Nibbeldongs are following you..."

 _Whats that again...?_

The boy often praised himself on his ability to listen to his peers as long as they talked. He found it extremly impolite to interrupt people or calling them names just because they acted strange. That was one of the reasons why Harry found such a good friend in Luna. The girl was actually highly intelligent – hey, she wasnt in Ravenclaw for show – but had the weird habit to point out strange beeings only she could see. To this came her dreamy expression, which made the impression she wasnt really paying attention. The poor girl was mobbed by her peers at first, until Harry came with her to a chat in the DA. He shielded her, open showing that she was his friend. This reduced the occuring mobbings drastically.

She wasnt normal, but she seemed pretty content with it. She was fun in her unique way of doing things, wearing her wand most of time the time behind her ear and never abadoning her Butterbeer-cap-necklace. The boy envied her a little – she didnt let the abuse get to her and kept her dreamy and innocent being. If you dont count the fact that her facial mask hided a not-so-innocent, bright young woman. She told him in secret, that it was 'easier to listen to the Nargels like that'. Harry got the idea that she gave some of her tormenters these names. He still wasnt sure if the creatures existed or not, but that was no problem.

* * *

Luna herself was deligthed that Harry choosed to sit with her. She wasnt sure about his reasoning tough. Did he forget that he was a Gryffindor? Or did he confuse his table with hers? But she wouldnt complain, she liked the green-eyed boy. He was always kind to her, and the only person talking to like a normal person. And now she could see his new look from close up. He wore the normal Hogwarts robes, yes, but they looked better on him than before...

What endeared him to her even more was the fact that he tried to chat with her about all the strange animals she always pointed out, all her little friends. Expect Nargels, of course. They were not that friendly. Seriously. She found that kinda cute, and researched the more rare creatures. She made a sport out of it: She told him something about an animal, and he tried to answer her. It was fun to see him struggling, trying to remember something about 'Nibbeldongs'. He gave up.

"What are they? What do they do?"

Now Luna wore a serious face, with a exited glint in her eyes. She always got that when she was explaining one of her creatures.

"They smell people keeping secrets and search them. Then they try to expose the secrets. The bigger your secret is, or the more secrets you got, the more Nibbeldongs will seek you out."

 _Uh oh..._

One of the problems with Luna: She was blunt, but very observative – maybe searching the strange creatures trained that? - and the blonde would be able to connect the dots pretty fast if it interested her. Actually she was on part with Hermione in this area, but had a completely different point of view on things. Which meant she wasnt very fast with daily or – for normal people – logical stuff, but if there was something that didnt made sense at all...

 _I have to be_ very _careful around her._ Maybe it would be easier to just tell her? If he did it in an secure location – because she _would_ speak about it in her normal tone of voice – he could prevent the super-gau...

He could see the scene infront of his inner eye:

How she connected the dots, her face mirroring complete confusing which would clear up quickly. Then, how she would turn to him and ask, in the middle of the Great Hall, as everybody was eating:

"So, how exactly did you kill the Death Eaters? And why did you eyes glow? Because of the Wrackspurts?" No, he had to prevent that. He would try and speak with her alone, explaining everything.

"Umm, Harry?" Suprised the boy turned around. There was Neville.

"Hey Nev, whats up?" The chubby boy leaned forwards.

"Do you, um, continue the DA?"

"A good question actually..."

Should he? He would force an confrontation with his 'best friends', especially if he would let Slytherins like Daphne and her friends in...

 _That could be reason enough... Ron would go crazy..._ He turned to Neville again.

"I have to think about it..."

"Please say yes Harry. I really liked it, even tough the, um, _cicrumstances_ werent that good last time..." The green-eyed youth gave a short laugh.

"True... As I said, I will think about it."

"POTTER!"

 _Finally, you sure took your time you greasy git..._ Snape stormed to the Ravenclaw-table.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for violating the rules! Go back to your own table!"

 _Ah, he fucked up..._ This time he let the grin form.

"I dont think so, I didnt violate any rules with this."

"DONT TRY TO LIE! Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek!" Harry ingored the steaming proffessor and turned to McGonnagall.

"Will you stay there and ingote the fact that an proffessor doesnt know the rules of the school, neither is he following them?"

"What are you talking about Mister Potter?"

"The rules say, that, I quote, 'It is punishable to sit an tables not from your house, at _the welcoming feast or other special occations._ The welcoming feast was yesterday, and today is nothing special. So I didnt violate the rules, did I?" McGonnagall pursed her lips.

"I have to agree. Serverus, please return the points and sit down."

"You are going to belive him? HIM? Again special treatment for Potter?" spluttered the potions-master.

 _Special treatment? I take everything that I said about Dumbledore back. SNAPE is demented. As fuck._

It was pretty childish to hold a grugde for a whole generation, especially if the new target didnt even knew his father.

"What is the turmoil about?" asked the Headmaster, walking into the great hall.

"Nothing proffessor." said Harry innocently "I was just refreshing the knowledge about the ground-rules."

"The boy is a liar!", cutted Snape in. "He is just trying to get attention! Just like his father..."

The last part was said under his breath.

"What _actually_ happened here Minerva?"

"Somebody just made a mistake which we are trying to rendeem.", replied the witch.

"What was this... mistake?"

"Severus took points from a student for placing himself at the table from a different house. Thankfully Mr. Potter was able to explain the actual rule forbidding such an act in more detail."

"So you came to...?"

"The insight that students actually are allowed to sit an different tables, as long as there is no special event."

"Well done Minerva.", came the twinkling end of the discussion. Dumbledore turned and walked to his throne.

"You believe the bullshit Potter spit out? Just like that?"

"Now Severus, my boy, dont be like that. Im completely sure that Mr. Potter wouldnt lie to us like that. Am I right?"

"Of course Sir." came Harrys reply. He even tought he had seen McGonnagalls mouth twitch upwards.

"See? No reason to be all worked up, here, sit down and eat." The potions proffessor grumbling took his place, obviusly unhappy about the outcome. Harry smiled innocently, not wavering as he got an hateful stare and agnry scowl in return.

That was fun! He should have started to do this earlier! He didnt even need his powers or a loophole, he was able to nail Snape down with completely legal weapons.

"It looks like your plan was a success, Harry."

"Plan, Luna? What are you talking about?" He should become actor, his Im-so-innocent-please-dont-hurt-me-face was a solid gold! But Luna was of course not fazed at all.

"I mean the plan you made this morning, to sit down at an other table, pissing Snape off in the process and then retord with an quote you spent at least half an hour memorizing, together with your trained facial expression." She made a short pause. "And no, I wasnt stalking you, but the Nargels told me."

 _I should have known that this wouldnt fool Luna..._

"If you say so my dear..." Now Luna looked confused.

"But, we are no couple Harry. So I cant be your 'dear'." She wrinkled her forehead.

"Of course counting on the fact I wasnt sleeping as you proposed. If I was, then Im sorry about that... So, lets go and make out?" Harry blinked. Once. Twice

. _Did she just... made me her boyfriend? And asked me to make out with her?_ The sad part was, that he wasnt even surprised anymore. Luna did that to you.

"But, we are no couple." "Ah, then forget my babbling about the sleeping stuff. You really should choose oyur words more wisely, Harry... So you dont want to make out with me in an broom closet?"

Harry facepalmed.

* * *

Harry was again the topic number one. But this time he was not a heir to something evil, or a cheating, attention seeking fame-whore. No, they talked about him because he acted like he did now. Differently. More confident. Maybe even a small player... It felt good. He made some waves at the feast already, as he flirted with the girls – especially Katie. On top of this came his new appearance, he was no longer the short, nearly starved scrawny boy with glasses not fitting on his face or for his eyes. And then he had the balls to challenge Snape indirectly, sitting down with 'Loony Lovegood' at the Ravenclaw-table.

He still had to talk to her about his powers. The idea to distance himself from her never crossed his mind. The students now gave him a lot of attention. He still didnt like it, but he was way calmer than before – thankfully – and tried to use his fame to an advantage. He flirted with every girl who was near to him for longer than two minutes. Most of them blushed helplessy after some words already. The boy never knew he had something like fangirls! Now, that he kept his distance from his former friends, and they did the same, he was suddenly waaaay more liked.

Pretty suspicious.

He would have a _talk_ with them later. Right now he was searching Luna, it was nearly time for dinner and he wanted to catch her shortly before. When everybody was eating, he wouldnt be disturbed or overheard, reasoned the boy. As he wandered the hallways, he remembered the confrontation with Malfoy after breakfast.

-Flashback-

Harry just finished eating and parted waysw with Luna, as Draco Malfoy strolled to him, superior sneer in place. They blonde obviously had waited next to the entrance of the Great Hall, together with his goons.

 _He still doesnt get it? He shouldnt fuck with me..._ Maybe he forgot the fiasco in the train? Did Harry hit him too hard?

 _Nah... he is just dumb..._ "Whats up ferret?" Draco gave him a strange look, it reminded of somebody with stomach aches... _Should that have been_ _intimidating?_

"I didnt forget the little stunt you pulled at the train Potter!" hissed the blonde heir hatefully, "Fighting like a filthy muggle, you should be ashamed." Harry gave a mocking smile.

"No, _you_ should be ashamed."

"And why is that?"

"Because it _worked._ You got beaten the muggle way, what would your father say? Oh, he is in Azkaban, my bad."

"Why, you little-" Draco was in motion to attack Harry – the 'filthy muggle way' noted the boy amused – as Slughorn made himself known.

"Mr. Potter?" Harry turned to the new potions proffessor.

"Yes Sir?" Out of the corner of his eye he could see Malfoy scowl angrily and walking away with a mumbled

"We are not finished Potter." Which Harry replied with a mocking

"I think so." The proffessor didnt notice any of this.

"I wanted to tell you that I will open a club for exclusive people. I would like to see you there."

 _Ah club?_ "And what happens in this club?" Slughorn smiled broadly.

"We talk, swap stories and interesting facts, and just have a good time. Your mother was in it too." He got a wistful expression. "Lily was a bright young witch yes, very talented."

 _Is he something like a_ fanboy? _He looks a little bit like he got the hots for mum... Urgh..._ But Slughorn could be useful, so a direct declining would be stupid.

"Can I think about it proffessor?"

"Sure, sure! The first meeting wil be saturday evening, if you decide to join us." His eyes gave a merry twinkle.

"Have a nice day Mr. Potter."

-Flashback End-

Harry still wasnt sure how to decide, but he still wanted to be done with Luna and his secrets first. He was puzzled why Draco still had Dumb and Dumber at his call, they never did anything worth mentioning anyway. Maybe they had nothing better to do? He would talk to them.

 _Maybe I can make them to allies..._ They wouldnt be very useful spies – they were dumb after all – but that didnt matter. If they switched sides it would be a small personal victory for Harry, especially if he could make them loyal to _him_ and not the headmaster.

The young Lord was walking now for what felt like ages, and still had not found Luna. He even walked in Daphne one time; which gave him a new goal. He liked to make girls blush, but she was pretty acting pretty differently now, not like on the train, and actually _resisted_ his efforts. To make matters worse, she made _him_ blush and stutter.

-Flashback-

"Hello Potter." Hary looked up and spotted Daphne and Tracy.

"Its Harry, Greengrass. Call me Harry." She came to a halt infront of him and gave him a challenging stare.

"And why should I do this?"

 _Challenge accepted._ "My friends call me Harry."

"Ah, but we just really talked once, so we dont really know eacht other, do we? Can we be friends like this?"

"Oh, I would love to get to _know you_ more." She raised a delicate eyebrow.

"Ah, I would _like that_." She closed the last distance. "So, you want to get to _know me, Mr. Potter_?" whispered she huskily.

 _That was unexpected._ Harry didnt found a good remark, and Daphne walked away with her friends, but not before she runned her hand over his shoulder and showed him a sly grin. She got a very pronounced _swing_ in her hips.

 _What a tease..._ A scarlet Harry tought after his brain was working again and continued the search for his other blonde friend.

The score was Daphne 1, Harry 0. He would get her back for this.

-Flashback End-

Still no sight of Luna.

His patience run out, and he went to his dorm to retrieve the Marauders Map.

 _Why didnt I tough about this earlier? I could have saved a lot of time..._ Mumbling the password, he scanned the map for Luna. There she was! On the seventh floor.

 _What is she doing there?_ She was alone, so Harry made his way over to her.

The map leaded him to a door at the end of the corridor. He tried to open it, only to fail. Spells didnt work either. There came sobbing from within.

"Luna?" No answer. "LUNA!" she still didnt respond.

 _I wanted to talk with her about that anyway..._

He took a deep breath and concentrated. Calling the mist at will still wasnt easy. It worked when he was angry or otherwise run by strong emotions, but to actually call it without giving in to his deeper urges was a tough task. With two big, confident steps he closed the distance between himself and the door and blasted it open.

There, in the corner of the completely dark room, huddled together and making herself as small as possible, was Luna Lovegood. She wore her school robes, which looked quite tattered, and pressed her necklace against her.

"Luna! Everything alright?" Before Harry could smack himself for the stupid question, Luna raised her Head, spotted him, and crashed into him like a bullet, clutching at him for dear life.

"Shhh, everything is alright. Im here. You are safe." The girl was crying into his shoulder as he made soothing circles on her back, holding her. As he stood there, crouching, with a sobbing girl in his arms, he could feel rage boiling up in him.

 _Who dared to do this?! I will make them PAY!_ He knew about her petrifing fear concerning dark and small rooms. Someone was cruel enough to use this fear against her, disgusting. Hopefully Luna could describe the event and the culprits for him. He would hunt them down! After something like ten minutes Luna calmed down enough to speak.

"Thanks Harry! Thanksthanksthanks!" She was still nearly hysterical.

"Shh. What happened?"

"They-They attacked me from behind and tossed me into this broom-closet... They told me to stay away from you, that a f-fr-freak like me shouldnt bother you and that-" The dreamy expression was completely gone, she looked like every other girl scared to death.

"Shshsh. Im here, and you are definetly no _freak_. They are! More like monsters!" He showed to be pretty calm on the outside, but truly he was _livid._ They called sweet, innocent Luna a _freak?_ He had unwanted flashbacks to his _family_ and how they called him freak. How they had beaten him, humiliated him. There were few words he hated more. He tried to keep the anger out of his voice as he asked her.

"Do you know who did this? Did you recognize the voice or voices?"

"N-No, Im sorry I dont-" He pressed her harder against him.

"Dont be sorry. We will find them. They will feel our wrath. I wont let them get away with this." A fainthearted nod against his chest was his answer.

"Come, I know something that will make you feel better." There were no hidden intentions in Harrys voice.

* * *

Harry fucking _loved_ the Room of Requirement. The way was a little complicated, because Luna didnt let go of him like he would vanish if she did. But this was definitely worth the trouble. The room composed this time of a warm, cozy armchair and an big fireplace. The ground was covered with big, warm and fluffy carpets, and to their right stood a small table with a warm chocolate drink. It reminded a little of a very improved gryffindor common room, but the colours were more orange than red.

Luna had calmed down somewhat – she gulfed down oceans of the stuff, the pot always refilled on its own - but was still clinging at her male companion. Not that he objected. They were talking about unimportant little things and events, after she told him why he couldnt open the door with a spell

("They took my wand, but I wouldnt have been able to open it anyway, one of them is good in runes. They slipped a stone covered with them under the door. You would need a strong blasting spell to open it.")

but Harry was working up the courage to tell her about his _changes_. Maybe it wasnt the best idea to do that right after he had to rescue her, and maybe it was _exactly_ the right moment. He knew he could trust her, _should_ trust her but wasnt completely sure. He tought Hermione and Ron wouldnt abadon him either, but he was really not happy with them right now. Maybe his tatste in friends was bad?

 _This is the last time I trust somebody if she betrays me._

"...and then Daddy tried to catch it, but it disappeared like Mugwas do. So we couldnt take a picture for 'The Quibbler'."

"Mhhmm." Luna gave a sly smile.

"Do I bore you?" Harry looked up, surprised.

"No, not really. I have to ask you something tough."

"Go ahead." He looked at her seriously.

"You have to keep it a secret! You are the first one I trust with this!"

 _If you dont count Dobby, of course._

"I wont tell a soul."

"Good."

 _Come! Just DO IT!_ (AN: Couldnt help myself...)

"I made something like a... discovery you could say after the Department of Mysteries. You know that Voldemort possessed me?"

A nod.

"Something happened then. It went definetly not as planned for him. As I was at home with my _relatives_ I started to become... hungry of sorts. You have to know, that is nothing unusual, they made a sport out of starving me and working me to death at the same time-" - here he ingored Lunas gasp, she was acting definetly more 'normal' - "-but it kept getting worse, so worse that I stole food from them. But that didnt sate me..."

Luna was good at listening, she paid rapt attention, made noises at the right moments and didnt just shout a question out after Harry was finished. She tought, and formulated carefully.

"So you are like, a leech? You drain the energy-"

"Life Force"

"-the Life Force forcefully out of your enemies and kill them with it, yes?"

"Um, yes? Something like that?" She nodded slowly.

"So, are you related to a Mugwa?" Silence. Harrys brain rebooted.

"Wait, are you actually more concerned about the possibilitie that Im related to one of your creatures instead of running screaming away, shouting bloody murder, because I killed lots of people and animals?" Now she looked confused. He loved her Im-confused-face, it made her especially cute.

"But you did that to survive, yes?"

"Mostly?"

"So it would make me a hypocrite to condemn you, because I eat meat to survive?"

"... but I killed _people_?" She waved her hand dismissly.

"Only Death Eaters and your realitives. And they did deserve such an end I think..."

"But I went in the Forest of Dead on a killing spree!" protestet the boy. _She cant just accept it?! That would be crazy!_

"Yes, and thats something that I dont really like."

 _Here it comes..._

"Next time you take me with you, ok?"

"Yes I know, Im sorry and- What did you just say?" She gave him a concerned look.

"Are you going deaf Harry? Are there too many Narhels so you cant hear me?"

"Did you just told me to bring you with me on my next _hunt?_ "

"Ah, you arent infected! Thats good!"

"Luna!"

"Yes, yes I told you to take me with you, why? I want to see that fro myself, maybe you _are_ related to a Mugwa..."

"Luna?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"I think Im in love with you..." A toughtful pout.

"Ok." A grin spread over her face. "So can we make out now?"

 _You know what? Fuck it._ His mouth tackled hers.

Luna was surprised that he showed such aggression, but was definetly not complaining. Of course she didnt know about Daphnes teasing, which wasnt that long ago...

The next minutes were spend very _busy._ Lunas mood would way better than before.

 _Nothing makes more happier than chocolate and snogging..._

But tomorrow, Harry would open _hunting season._


	5. Chapter 4

**The Lord of Life  
**

 **AN: Hello there! Here is the next chapter, sorry that im updating so slowly but school is pretty intense... To the readers who tell me to get a beta - I'm not really comoftable with the idea, because I have honestly no experience there... :/ I'm no fast writer either, so I don't really know how I should proceed... This chapter should be without mistakes (at least I hope my proofreading wasn't in vain) and I'm trying to set the always the '... Please tell if this is a little better?**

 **And don't become confused, the chapter starts with a little Flashback from Lunas past!**

 **Chapter 4**

"Mummy!" A small Luna Lovegood runned exited in the study room of her mother. Pandora Lovegood, a witch with a stunning resemblance to her young daughter, turned smiling around.

"What is it sweetie?" The little girl was bouncing up and down.

"I have seen one! I have seen one!"

"What did you see?"

"One of the creatures you told me about!" Silvery-blue eyes widened in surprise.

"That's wonderful!" Impatient a small hand grabbed the mother's arm and started dragging her out of the room.

"Come! I wanna show you!" With a musical laugh Pandora let her daughter have her way.

Luna was seven years old.

She was a happy child, always bubbly, grinning and laughing. She spent countless hours with her mother searching new creatures, telling each other stories about them and just had fun. Luna tried to make her Daddy join them, but he always declined. That didn't mean he didn't believe them, he always let his baby girl put stories about them in the Quibbler, he just never searched with them. Luna was satisfied with that, the less eyes to search, the more challenging. Her life was good.

But of course that didn't last. She was nine years old now, but maintained the habit to drag her mum away from work – her mother was experimenting.

Pandora was trying to revolutionize spellcasting and spell creating, so she combined different charms and tried to make them easier to cast, more powerful etc. She was in the middle of a new experiment as her daughter came in her study.

"Mum, you promised to go playing with me today!" whined the girl.

"Yes, and I will. But first I have to finish this." replied her mother distracted. Now curious, Luna looked what her mother was doing exactly. On the big stone-table, which took most of the space in the room, were three items. A triangle, a circle and a thin beam. They were made of a strange crystal; it looked a little like toned glass, but there were all colors of the rainbow, with fluid transitions.

"What is this?"

"It's an idea.", answered Pandora, still focusing on the items.

"Muuuuum, that's no real answer!" Annoyed the woman looked up.

"That's because I'm not sure myself! I created these crystal with a misfired spell, I'm trying to reconstruct it."

"Why the strange forms?"

"Because I hit the symbols for the Deathly Hallows with it."

"Ahh!" Luna of course knew the stories, nearly everybody had them read in some time of their lives. It was a fairy tale, telling the story about three brothers who tricked Death. Most children only heard it once and switched to other books, but Lunas parents told her the story multiple times. They believed in it. Her mother was the worst of them, and even went as far to create symbols for the Hollows: A triangle for the invisibility cloak, a circle for the Ring of Resurrection and beam, more like a small staff, for the Elder Wand – the Death Stick.

"So you are trying to recreate this strange stuff?" She reached for the triangle.

"DON'T!" the girl pulled back. "I have no idea what exactly these are capable of. So please don't touch it."

"Ok." Luna said in a meek voice, still a little startled by her mother's outburst.

"Now, please make a little bit more room." Pandora waited until her daughter was at the other end of the room, before she whispered a strong shield spell and turned back to the items. A flick of her wand, and the crystal started glowing. She nodded, satisfied. "Now I just have to-" The last part of her sentence was swallowed up by the powerful explosion that ripped through her and the table.

"MUM!" Luna raced panicking to her mother, but she was already dead. "NO! MUM! MUM! ANSWER! MUM!" she started sobbing. "Mum.. Please..." This was the scene Xenophilius Lovegood walked into.

* * *

The happiness was destroyed. The once proud home, full of laughter and love became deadly quiet. The last two Lovegoods mourned their loss, changing in the process. Xenophilius started to become more aloof, fleeing in work and the realm of dreams. Luna, not able to cope with her loss, placed a mask of dreaminess on herself, starting to act strange and talking to her little friends. She tried to hold at least this part of her mother in life, using the connection between the creatures and her happy time with her family.

Her father still couldn't see them, and it was hard to talk with him about them. Then finally there was hope again: she would be going to Hogwarts! And she was sorted into the house of knowledge no less – Ravenclaw! But her hope of finding someone to talk to were quickly killed. Her housemates did neither know of Nargels and Co., nor were they willing to listen to her – at all! Then they started bullying her. She was able to keep her mask of indifference, but it was hard. She learned silencing-charms, so the others wouldn't hear her crying herself to sleep sometimes. It was nearly unbearable.

And then she met Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived and he was _friendly_ to her! Even though his friends didn't like her! If you don't count Ginny of course. That was the reason she would go as far with him as he would let her. He saved her, made her life finally worthy of living again! She would never abandon him, she would keep him back! And that was the reason why she had to come with him on his next trip to the forest. Luna wanted to make sure he would be okay, she needed to understand him more. So she had to see all of his facets.

-Flashback End-

The two students met before they went together in the Great Hall. Harry wanted to make sure he was seen, to bring the Hogwarts-rumor-mill in. The plan was, to show everybody that nobody fucked with his friends, _especially_ not with Luna, in the manner they already did. Locking her in a dark and small room was so plain _cruel_ that he wouldn't just let it be.

They were a little bit late – part of the plan – and everybody was seated and eating already. The young Lord walked with long, confident steps to the Ravenclaw-table, Luna trailing nervously behind him.

Her mask was gone, she was acting like every normal girl would in an uncomfortable situation. The conversations came to an end, even the teachers looked interested. Harry looked pissed.

"I think you have something which isn't yours." he declared, anger seeping into his voice. A fifth year answered him.

"And why do you think something like that?"

"You have Lunas wand. Give it back." There was a nervous flicker of the eyes between some of the girls. Harry caught it.

"We don't have _her_ wand. Why do you think we would?" answered another girl. The fact that she said 'her' like it was something disgusting was missed by nobody. Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Don't bullshit me! You will give-"

"Potter! I think that's quite enough of your unfounded accusations!" _Of course the fucking Git has to speak up again._ Oh, how he _hated_ Snape right now. The Raveclaw looked smug. Harry turned to his least favorite professor.

"These are no _unfounded accusations_! And if you would do your fucking job, you would know that!" Snape bristled.

"How dare you? Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Harry ignored the man-child and turned back to the Ravenclaws. His anger was rising at and alarming level.

"Obviously you didn't quite hear me the first time. **Give. It. Back.** " His green eyes glinted dangerously, his voice was cold and cruel. Involuntary the occupants of the table cowered. Now Flitwick stood up and made his way over.

"What exactly is the problem here, Mister Potter?" Wrong thing to say. _What the problem is? WHAT THE PROBLEM IS?_

"The _problem_ is the fact that you are obviously not able to control your own house Professor!" spit Harry, so venomous that even the small charms-master shrunk back a little. Not giving him a chance to reply, Harry continued. "The _problem_ is, that my good friend Luna gets bullied by her own housemates! They steal her belongings, now even her _wand_. And went as far to lock her in a small closet! And this will **stop. Right. Now.** "

"Is this true?"

"We have no idea what he is talking about professor!" defended one girl her and her house. "We would never do that to one of our own!" _I have enough._

"Accio Lunas Wand." With an 'eep' one of the girls was dragged on her robes halfway to Harry, until tearing could be heard and the searched object flew in the boys' hands. Harry turned to Flitwick. "I'm disappointed Professor. You obviously weren't able to fulfill your duties. I hope these _persons_ will at least get punished accordingly." Flitwick gave a short nod, ignoring the disrespect because he himself was quite angry.

"I apologize, Miss Lovegood for the lack of observation on my part. If it happens again, please notify me." He turned to his house, now sounding honestly angry. "I'm shocked that my house would stoop as low as you did and bully one of our own! I will make sure everybody of you will get punished! And here is the first one: One thousand points from Ravenclaw! None of you have earned a chance of victory for the house-cup! And don't think it will be over that early!" The former dueling-master gave a short nod to Harry and went out of the hall, still fuming. Now Harry turned to the other students.

"I'm telling you, that I won't stand the bullying of myself or my friends anymore! Everybody who attacks them or me, attacks two noble and ancient houses! And I will respond in kind! And that counts for _everybody_!" here he turned to Snape.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for threatening a teacher!" Harry ignored him again, gave Luna her wand and left with her the Great Hall again – they would eat in the kitchens.

* * *

With a groan, Harry said himself straight again. He had Defence against the Dark Arts and was sitting on the last bench before the wall. The room changed again drastically. There were countless pictures of people with gruesome wounds, bloody and beaten. Others were screaming in silent agony, and so on.

 _I already don't like this at all..._

The door was slammed open, and in walked Snape, sneer in place, coat swirling behind him. He let his gaze wander over the students. All houses were represented. "Welcome to DADA. You all already know me. As you can see -" here he pointed at some of the pictures "-the Dark Arts are very dangerous and most of the time lethal. Your last _teachers_ were very different from each other, some more competent, some less."

Someone coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'Lockhart'.

"So I want from you all an essay about the most used spells in combat, with details. Understood?" That was so typical Snape: Not even started with the lesson, but already homework. "Now, we will train the 'Protego' spell. It shields the front of the caster and can be used to block spells and send them back. Divide into groups of two, one casts the shield, the other attacks with simple hexes." Nobody dared to move. "Begin!"

Naturally, there was an odd number of students, and naturally Harry was paired with Malfoy and one of his goons, Crabbe. Snape strolled over.

"It looks like we have an odd number of students, but I'm sure Potter is able to hold his shield against two attackers. Go on." Malfoy gave Harry a hateful stare.

"And here we are again, Potter. Do you think you won't give in in one second?"

"Aww, still sore that I beat your lousy ass multiple times?" shot Harry back. "You are so bad, it wouldn't surprise me if I can beat you only with my shield." Without waiting for his opponent to get ready, Malfoy gave an angry shout and started firing spell after spell, Crabbe joined after a short pause.

" _Protego._ " A powerful shield build itself just fast enough to block the first spell. The glittering wall was thick and sturdy, the different attacks not even fazing it in the slightest. _It is annoying that I have to use Life Force, but they will definitely not be able to break it..._

Malfoy was getting incredibly frustrated. He could already feel exhaustion creeping up his spine, and Crabbe wasn't doing much better – that he did better at all was insulting for the young heir – but Potter just stood there, keeping his gaze and the shield up without problems. He even went as far to redirect the incoming spells back to them! There were some close calls, some of his stinging hexes senged his clothes. _Did he just... Yawn?_ Now the blonde heir started throwing curses that were nearly dark. Some of them bone crushers, others would inflict great pain. Of course Snape was watching intently, but not stepping in. Of course not. As long as Harry was in no mortal danger, he would sit back and enjoy.

 _Greasy Git._ The shield was starting to waver, but Harry wasn't really concerned. The spellfire was already slowing down, Crabbe had already stopped and was panting on the ground. Finally the blonder heir collapsed. _The shield passed the test, but only barely. I have to perfect it, otherwise it would be a waste of resources. Especially if I use Life Force. Three Death Eaters would break it in a matter of seconds..._ Snape was unpleasantly surprised that Potter was able to hold his own without breaking a sweat. And he couldn't even punish him, because he didn't do _anything_ and could bring Dracos behavior to the Headmaster. That didn't stop his sneer of course.

"Sit down Potter and write down what you learned."

"Of course professor." Again nothing out of order. Disappointed turned Snape to the other students.

* * *

Harry was on his way to the Room of Requirement. It was after curfew, but the Teachers already knew not to bother him and he was good at avoiding students. He loved the possibilities the room could provide. He was still a little bit pissed at Snape, and this would provide the perfect distraction. After walking the hallway upr and down three times, a door appeared and he walked in.

This time it was a big training hall. The ground was wooden, spelled with cushioning charms, the walls were simple stone. At the one end were multiple training dummies, at the other stood a big table with lots of cool drinks and potions. The middle was big enough for five people fighting, a fact that confused Harry a little, but he wouldn't complain. The potions would stimulate his muscle growth – nothing too drastic though – and should keep him energized. The dummies seemed at first like nothing special, but as he started shooting spells at them, they dodged.

 _So that is the challenge..._ The boy missed them for half an hour completely, after that he slowly began to improve. He was tiring and the number od spells he could fire was going down, but he started aiming better. After two hours, he was completely soaked with sweat, but he finally hit one dummie.

He started celebrating, until the dummy moved with high speed – at him. He could only gape in shock before a stuffed arm knocked the air out of him.

 _What the...?_ The boy jumped frantically multiple steps backward, but the dummy made no move to follow, obviously satisfied. _So they will try to dodge my attacks, but when I hit them, they return in kind?_ That made the training at least more challenging. _I will test this theory tomorrow..._ He was nearly sleeping on the spot and really needed to stop for today. After a short bath – he fucking _loved_ this room – he left and nearly ran into somebody. _Who was that?_ He could only see a shadow hurrying away. _Maybe someone wanted to play a prank?_ He was definitely too tired for more thinking. After a few seconds the event was already forgotten.

* * *

There was one thing Harry had to say: Slughorn was a thousand times better at teaching potions than Snape. First thing: He didn't let them wait hours in the classroom, they could walk in directly. The chubby man had a cauldron at his table and waited patiently until everybody was there. Then he started.

"Welcome!", a beaming smile was fixed on his face. "My name is Horace Slughorn, and I will teach you potions this year, instead of your liked Professor Snape! But don't worry, next year he will be back again." _Hurray..._ "Now, can someone tell me what this is?" He pointed to the cauldron. "Yes, Miss...?"

"Granger, Sir. Hermione Granger."

"Yes, Miss Granger, what is in there?"

"Felix Felicitus." said the bushy haired girl respectful.

"Correct! And do you know what it does?"

"It's liquid luck, professor."

"Wonderful! Ten points for Gryffindor! I see, Professor Snape taught you well!" There were some supressed sniggers. "This is the reward for todays lesson!" Now the man had everybody's attention. "The person with the best sample shall get one vial full of Felix Felicitus, the liquid luck! So give your best!" Exited whispers. Slughorn smiled again. "Now, you have to brew the following potion..."

The lesson was war. Everybody tried to be the first to complete the assignment. Neville destroyed his whole Cauldron again, Ron – without the guidance of Hermione, Slughorn told them that helping would be a disqualification - wasn't much better. Harris' own potion was a deep purple – it should have been a light blue – and Dracos went completely black. Hermiones was a dark blue, but as Slughorn didn't look, the Slytherins started firing with indrigents at her cauldron until it melted. At the end of the lesson, Slughorn wasn't satisfied. "That wasn't good, nobody was even _near_ the right color. Clean up your mess and go, maybe you can win the potion next time. As homework, write down the mistakes you made. We will speak about them next lesson." The man was no bad teacher, but against the endless Gryffindor-Slytherin-war he couldn't do much. But at least he actually _cared_ for them and their imrpovement, not like Snape and his "You have forty minutes, directions are at the board." Nevertheless, it was fun. At least more fun than with Snape.

* * *

History of Magic was no fun. Binns was more boring as ever, and even Hermione was hard pressed to write everything down like the last years. Harry didn't even know _how_ he could become more boring – he was _still_ talking about the Goblin Wars. That was nothing new, yes, but this time his voice would have lulled the ghost himself to sleep. Only if ghosts could sleep, of course. The boy had to supress a chuckle as Hermione gave up, crashed her head on her book and started snoring.

 _At least I get a little extra-sleep._ He had been hard pressed to keep awake in Potions, so it was no surprise that he failed so spectacularly. Binns had at least one use. After a short glance left and right, where he could only see sleeping students, he laid back and closed his eyes. After his nap, he would read more of the book from the Lord. Then he would at least do _something._ Time flew by.

* * *

It was nearly a week since school started and Harry was feeling restless again. Especially because he promised Luna to bring her with him on his next run through the forest. She didn't seem scared even tough her dreamy expression was mostly absent. The girl had started following him around like a lost puppy – not that he minded – and the rumors that they were a couple ran high. It was true, but only to a special extent. After his night _comforting_ her they were much closer than before, but there was no repeat of the snogging session or something like that. They were no unofficial pair either, it was pretty confusing. Maybe that was because he never officially asked her, maybe it was because he flirted with _lots_ of girls – at first at least. He focused on Daphne at the moment, because she seemed the most resistant to his teasing and it was on his personal to-do-list to make her blush. The score stood 3 – 0 for Daphne, which didn't sit right with his pride.

But he was getting off topic, he was trying to distract himself.

It was late, right after dinner and before curfew, and the boy-who-lived was scared shitless. Not because he feared for his life, but he feared for his friendship with the wonderful girl to his right, strolling with him trough the outskirts of the forest.

 _What if she gets hurt? What if I scare her away? If she hates me after that?_ The night was calm and peaceful, but not soothing to his nerves. He jumped as a hand traced over his shoulder. He turned to his companion. Luna smiled at him, only in small robes. Both of them had applied multiple warming charms beforehand.

"Don't be afraid. It was my decision to come with you." His answer came with a sigh, nearly not audible.

"But what if you fear me after this?" She looked him in the eyes, completely serious.

"I will never fear you, I own you." She hugged him, whispering in his ear. "I have to see this part of you, I _want_ to see this part of you. Please don't be afraid, I won't judge you." The knot in his stomach wasn't gone after her words, but it was bearable. He gave a short nod, and gave her his cloak. She wouldn't do any fighting and he _definitely_ didn't want to see her in danger. His cloak would prevent that. She gave him a soothing smile and disappeared from sight. A last glance back, he straightened his back and walked into the woods.

* * *

It wasn't long until he found the spot again. There was nearly no evidence of his last fight – the animals of the forest obviously had some decent meals here. His earlier excitement was slowly dampened and he became more calm. He stood in the middle of the clearing and waited. And waited. And waited. No spiders. Nothing.

 _Do they avoid me?_ That was unexpected. But surely they were watching him? _I could taunt them in the open..._

That was no solution he really liked, because he would have to be loud for that, but it couldn't be helped. He spoke in a low voice, but his words drifted through the woods with ease.

"Are you afraid of me? A puny human? A pity. You will let me get away with killing so many of you? No revenge? No guts? Are you that weak? Disgusting..." The boy paused. There was a faint clicking. He grinned. _Soon..._ "Even now you hide like the cowards you are..." He rolled to the left, an angry shriek came from the beast which stomped on the ground where he left. " _There_ you are!"

The slaughter began. This time things were slightly different. He was more aware of the fight and his body wasn't moving on its own. There were some close calls as more and more spiders streamed out of the woods.

 _Looks like I pissed them off..._ He was nearly overwhelmed. His mist struck out in rapid succession, his wand fired colorful bolts of lighting, but there came more and more. Eventually he was surrounded and from every angle came a glittering fang or a strong leg.

For a short moment he felt fear. Luna was already sprinting out of her cover, cloak forgotten. But something changed.

 **"STOP!"** A powerful wave of darkness crashed in the animals, breaking bones and pressed them back. This time, there was no peace in his heart. There was _rage._ **"You are a nuisance. DIE!"** Mist swirled around his wand, building a small ball of darkness at the tip.

Luna was looking at it in wonder, but then came to her senses and jumped behind the rock with the cloak again, pressing her hands on her ears. She wasn't sure what Harry was doing, but it sounded lethal. The beasts were closing up again, not noticing the danger in their mindless rage. Harry pointed his wand at the ground. Looking at the flood of spiders and smiled coldly.

 **"You have made good training material."** With a careless flick of his hand, the ball crashed to the ground. There was a short pull and then the small black something expanded and exploded.

The explosion was like a mini-nuke, but completely without heat and only a small Shockwave. Luna could feel her warming charms flickering and some of them failed. Ice made his way over the plants, and an icy wind blew. She carefully looked out of her cover.

The spiders were nearly not recognizable anymore, there were only pieces of them, frozen. In the middle stood Harry, his clothes coated in a thick layer of ice, but he didn't seem to be cold. He turned to her, looked at her ruffled appearance and in his eyes flared worry. The boy made his way over to her as fast as he could.

"Luna! Everything alright?" In his worry for her, he completely forgot about his fear of her reaction. She hugged him again, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"I'm fine and you seem to be, too. You had me panic there."

"I'm sorry, but they were more than expected." She looked him over. Blushing and feeling awkward, Harry asked her: "What are you doing?" She squinted her eyes.

"It seems like you are... Glowing?" He blinked.

"Huh?"

"Not like a lamp or something." she explained, "But there is a faint glow coming from your skin."

"Hmm, I absorbed lots of Life Force, maybe that's the reason?"

"That could be..." Suddenly he remembered what he had done – in front of her – and started to worry. She instantly registered that. "Hey, I'm not scared or anything." A small smile. "That was a pretty cool show." He looked at her suspiciously, not sure that she was honest, but he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and a large grin split his face.

"So, you don't hate me? Or are... Repulsed?"

"Not at all." She made a grimace. "Ok, maybe a little. They _smell_!" He gave a short laugh.

"I didn't even register it until now. We should head back-" Suddenly she clamped her hand on his mouth. Green eyes looked to her in confusion.

"There is someone coming!" hissed Luna, all playful demeanor gone. She threw the cloak over the both of them and pressed herself against a tree.

 _I don't hear anything, but if she says so..._ Then he could hear it too. Voices, multiple people. _No Centaurs then._ He got a good look at them, and his blood run cold, followed by unholy rage.

Death Eaters. At least a dozen. One of them gestured to the remains of the spiders.

"See? Something happened here!"

"Maybe they fought with each other?" supplied one of the others helpfully.

"No.", said a third. "See the ice? That was magic."

"Who got a reason to fight in the forest so late into the night?"

"We are here too..."

"Of course we are!", hissed the first. "But we have a job to do from our Lord!"

"Which we finished. The wards will detect us very early. No window to attack. So lets go." Multiple murmurs of agreement.

 _I could kill the bastards!_ He hastily applied the glamours and stepped out of the cloak, into the open. He was spotted very fast by one of them.

"There! Who are you?" Another spoke up.

"He was the one that stopped the raid at Diagon Alley! The Rat described him for us! KILL HIM!"

 _Well, they already know me..._ He couldn't drown the environment in darkness again, they could misfire and hit Luna, so he had to be creative. The mist supported him, brought him into the middle of his foes.

He focused all his attention of dodging, the higher numbers of Death Eaters started hitting their allies. On the corner of his eyes, he could see one of them struck down by the killing curse, another one was cruciod for a short time until the caster released the spell. Under his breath, Harry began chanting in a language not made for human throats. It was pretty draining – especially so because he was not used to it – but his wand started to change, little by little. The piece of wood became a complete black, so dark that focusing on it would be nearly impossible, if not for the low white glow it emitted. The silver strands looked a little bit like the memories you could throw in a Pensieve. _Finally done._

"Bombarda!" The following explosion was extreme. Dirt and debris flew everywhere, followed by a wave of heat. The Death Eaters were flying like puppets, most of them not in one piece and already dead. Two managed to apparate away. A satisfied smile curled on Harrys lips, as he walked relaxed to Luna. Her only comment as they walked back to Hogwarts was

"They had it coming..."

* * *

"Crucio!" Voldemort listened to the screams of his Death Eater. It had been a simple scouting mission. He wanted to test the wards, if they would banish him or his followers or just alert the old coot. He had sent a dozen soldiers. _A DOZEN_! And only two of them came back! Both wounded, one of them died before he could give his report. It was the same man that defied him before. He didn't recognize his magic, which was something he would change. Somewhere he would surely have a book describing this strange mist. He stopped the curse, his follower was twitching on the ground.

"You will only live, because you fulfilled your mission. Don't fail me next time!" hissed the snakelike man.

"Y-Yes M-My Lord!" With a flick of his wand, the quivering mess was banished from his throne room. The wards would only banish _him_ , not his followers. At least _some_ good news. Now he would research about this strange magic. Next time he would be prepared.

* * *

Harry lay awake on his bed, thinking. His secret was revealed to one of his friends, _completely_ revealed, and she had accepted even his mindless slaughter. The spell he used to kill the spiders was able to absorb bits of Life Force, so had had some of it in storage – before he killed the Death Eaters. Empowering a normal spell was luckily not as draining as performing a spell _only_ with Life Force, but he still lost most of it. The problem was that he couldn't train these particular skills, so he had no feeling how much of his power he had to use. What he did to the Death Eaters was complete overkill. Half the power would have been enough to stun most of them so he could finish them off – maybe even with his mist, so he would have won even more Life Force. He sighed. _Nothing I can change now._ He was still exhausted, so he gave himself to blissful sleep.

As the boy-who-lived came down the stairs from his dorm the next morning, somebody was waiting for him.

"Um, Harry?" asked Hermione meekly, "Can I talk to you?"

"You are already, Hermione. What is it?"

"I know you are still mad at me and all, but _please_ can we be friends again?"

"Where is Ron?" She scowled.

"I have no idea where this moron is. Eating propably." _No surprise there..._ "So, can we?" Harry wasn't sure how to decide. He wasn't really angry with her anymore, _and_ she was asking him quite honestly. At least she looked like it.

"Why did you ignore me the last days?" She looked at her feet and mumbled something. "What?"

"I said you scared me!" she said a little louder. _Ah, what I did on the train... I forgot already._ He stepped closer to her, she was shrinking back a little. "You don't have to fear me 'Mione. I was just already angry and then came Ron and made it worse – like usually. I didn't mean to scare you." He grabbed her chin and lifted her head up. She shied away from his gaze. "Hey, I'm still same old Harry." Still no improvement. _Hmm, what can I...? Ah, yes._ This time _he_ hugged _her,_ not the like normally the other way around. At first she struggled, but slowly she relaxed. "Better?" A nod against his chest. "Good. We can start anew, but Ron has to come to me first before he is my friend again. And he should stop sprouting that nonsense about Slytherins in general."

"I will tell him that."

"Don't." She looked up, surprised.

"Why not?"

"Because he should realize that by himself."

"It's your decision..." she relented.

"Now, lets go and grab something to eat." She gave him a happy smile, which he returned.

* * *

Walking into the Great Hall, they met Ron. He was staring first at Hermione, then at Harry and then at Hermione again. After that he made a move to grab her arm. "Why are you with _Potter_ , Hermione?" _Wow, that was nearly a Malfoy._ Hermione slapped his hand away and replied angrily:

"It's Harry, not 'Potter', and why are you so shocked?"

"Did you already forget what he did to me on the train? In the company of filthy Slytherins?"

"That was deserved.", cut Harry in, "And I will do it again if you don't learn how to keep your big mouth shut." Rons ears started to glow in the famous 'Weasley red'.

"Ah, now you are trying to stop me from talking? Do you think I have to obey you, you arrogant Prat? Do you think you can do whatever you want?"

"No, but I know that you are acting like a stupid idiot." That made Ron shut up. As the freckled boy tried to form a good comeback, Harry was already on his way to the Ravenclaw-table, Hermione trailing behind him, ignoing the red-headed fool.

"Hello Luna."

"Hello Harry." replied the blonde. Then she whispered secretly: "Hermione is following you! Try to lose her without being obvious!" The boy snorted.

"I know that Hermione is following me, we made up again."

"Oh." Luna gave her patented 'I'm-thinking-and-you-can-see-it' pout. "Hello, Hermione."

"Hi."

"Do you think Harry has an Nargel infection?" _She is baiting her._ Realized Harry surprised. They all knew that Hermione would try and argue about the creatures Luna 'knew' existed, because there was no evidence. In the DA she got worked up about that really hard, until they mostly ignored eacht other. Luna wanted to test her.

"I'm not sure.", replied Hermione slowly, "But you could be right." The blonde gave the other girl a wide smile. _Test passed._

"It could be of course, but you never know... Tell me if you see them."

"Hey, can't I say something? You are talking about me!" complained Harry.

"No." answered both girls at once, looked at each other and grinned.

"I can't win here...", grumbled the boy with a mock pout. Luna patted his head.

"Of course you can't, at least you realize it and don't waste time or energy trying."

* * *

The next days, Ron was a pain in the ass. He told everybody who would listen, that Harry was an arrogant, evil git, who was learning the Dark Arts. At first, people believed him – like the stupid sheep they are – but as the realized that Harry hadnt changed his behaviour, and that he was accompanied by Hermione and Luna – the first one too much teachers-pet to learn the Dark Arts, the second one too barmy – Rons followers were dwindling in numbers. Of course, there were some of the _really_ dumb people who felt their beliefs confirmed. It was annoying, sure, but as long as they didnt try anything funny Harry had no real problem with it. But of course Ron couldn't just let matters be, and confronted the 'New Dark Lord'.

"Hello Potter.", sneered the youngest male Weasley. It was right after Defence against the Dark Arts, and even though Snape knew his stuff he held an even bigger grudge against Harry after the fiasco at breakfast. It was _very_ hard to keep his calm in class. He lost points – of course he did, he did _breath_ too loud, fro Merlins sake! - But not as many as he _could_ have. Uninterested he let his gaze wander over the group Ron brought with him. Some of them he knew, like Dean Thomas, for example, but others he had only seen. They were in the younger years.

 _Of course they are, they don't know Ron that well yet._

"Nothing to say?" said the Weasley. Harry gave an arrogant smile. _Two can play this game._

"You know, you are _worse_ than Malfoy."

"What! How can you compare me with this slimy snake?"

"Oh, I didn't _compare_ you." Before Ron could reply, he pressed on. "I said you were _worse_. Malfoy at least made his intentions clear from the start. _You_ are a backstabbing piece of shit."

"And you- you are as arrogant as Malfoy! And you are not better that these slimy snakes!"

"Is that all you can come up with? Taunted the boy. "My cousin could have made better insults, and I'm pretty sure he was retarded." Ron saw red, and made a move to hit him. _Can he even learn? This becomes embarrassing... for him..._ Before the fist could reach him, Harry made a quick sidestep and rammed his fist in the other boy's stomach. Ron went down, retching.

"Pathetic. And I mean our former friendship, your insults _and_ your fighting skills." With that said, Harry walked away. The crowd made room for him, nobody daring to stop him.

* * *

Harry walked into Dumbledores office. It was Saturday, and the headmaster send him a note per McGonnagall asking him to come. The old man sat behind his desk again.

"Headmaster.", nodded Harry.

"Ah, hallo Harry. I have multiple things to discuss with you."

"And these are...?"

"Firstly, why did you attack poor Ronald?"

"He said _I_ attacked _him_?" asked Harry disbelieving. "He gathered some followers to try and insult me!" Dumbledore sighed sadly.

"So you are still fighting? Can't you be the bigger man and forgive him?" Determined Harry folded his arms.

" _He_ should apologize to _me, not_ the other way around. He sprouted the bigot-shit, and as long as he keeps that up, I won't even think about forgiveness."

"But you have not discarded him completely?" asked the headmaster hopefully.

"No, but he has to be honest." That was enough to satisfy the old man.

"To something else: You said that you don't want private lessons, but I think this here could be very helpful in our fight against Tom."

"Continue."

The old man pointed at a dozen small glass vials, in them were floating silvery strands. _Memories!_ Realized the boy. _And lots of them._

"I see you realize what these are. They are all concerning one individual – Tom Marvolo Riddle. It was very costly to collect all of these. Some of them are from me, some of them are from friends, others I had to actually buy." Dumbledore picked one of the vials up, and gave the memory in the stone bowl, the Pensieve. "Let's start, shall we?" They both were pulled in.

* * *

They systematically viewed every memory. They started with Dumbledores and Toms first meeting in the orphanage. Harry could see a younger Dumbledore, in front of an orphanage. He was talking to the old woman behind the counter.

"Hello, may I speak with Tom Riddle?" The woman flinched at the mention of the name, but Dumbledore just ignored it, filing it away for later. Tom Riddle was in the darkest room, at the end of the hallway. Harry was reminded of the boy he saw in the Chamber of Secrets. Even in his younger years, the boy kept his dark hair carefully styled. "Tom Riddle?" Cold eyes looked up.

"That's me."

"I'm here to give you an invitation..."

Even though it wasn't real, and long in the past, the young Riddle still made Harry feel unease. He was a child, but acted like an adult. Cold and calculating. At first he was unfriendly, but as he realized the use of Hogwarts, his behavior turned completely. The boy put on a wonderful act, Harry had to give him credit for that. The perfect dose of curious child, serious boy and childish excitement. It was sickening, and Harry was happy as the memory ended and they dove into the next one.

After the first were multiple episodes at Hogwarts, for example, how the young student framed Hagrid after Myrtle died. It was surprising how _good_ he was at manipulating people. Nobody tought it suspicious, that he could find the culprit, so fast after the death. And nobody defended Hagrid or listened to him.

 _Idiots, Hagrid tells them his spider would never do something like that, and they don't realize that a spider can't kill without wounds or poison on the target._ It would have been so easy to prevent Toms rise to power. Over the years, he became darker, more evil, and Dumbledore got his suspicions. But he never told anyone – a grave mistake.

Finally, they came to the last memory. Only two persons were in it: Tom and – surprisingly – Professor Slughorn. It was after the lesson, Tom stayed until the two of them were alone.

"Is there something you forgot?" asked the professor friendly.

"Not really forgot, no, it's more like something you don't talk in public about." Now he had Slughorns full attention.

"And what _are_ you talking about? Is it something you need my help for?"

"Yes, I read a book and stumbled over a word I have never heard before. I thought maybe you could help me." Slughorn gave his favorite student a small smile.

"Of course, if I know something I will tell you." The boy nodded, smiling.

"Do you have any information about _Hocruxes_?" There was a short pause, and then the professor started shouting at Riddle. "NO! I DON'T HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT! NOW OUT! OUT!" He pushed the boy out of the room, and the memory ended.

Harry and Dumbledore were both back in their own bodies, and sat down heavily.

"Interesting, it is not?" asked the Headmaster. _Only you could call something like this interesting, Dumbledore..._

"It is _interesting_ , definitely, but I have a question about that last memory." The eyes of the old man twinkled.

"Ah, so you felt it too?"

"Yes, there was something... _Off_ about it." The Headmaster gave a weary sigh.

"True, I'm pretty sure myself, that somebody tampered with it."

"Who gave you the memories?" _Stupid question._

"Horace, of course." Harry hummed in thought.

"So he is trying to cover something up."

"It looks like this."

"And you want me to get the real memory, right?" Twinkle.

"Ah, you are completely right Harry."

"Of course I am...", grumbled the boy. He looked up. "And how should I do this?"

"That you may decide for yourself." _No help then, hurray..._

"Was that all headmaster? I have much to think about."

"Yes, that was indeed all. You may go." Harry gave a short nod and left the office, head swimming with all the memories. Coming near to Slughorn wouldn't be that difficult, but how should he breach something that was obviously a sore spot for the man? And how should he prevent, that the man just tampered again with the memory? He had to forge plans, to be careful.

* * *

On the hall he met Daphne again.

"Potter."

"Greengrass." It was a running joke between the two of them – they would never talk to each other on a first - name basis, at least not in the first minutes.

"Where did you come from?"

"From the Headmasters office." She gave a smirk. "Oh, got the naughty boy himself caught again?"

"No, I wasn't in trouble. But where did you come from?" Suddenly the girl seemed nervous. "

Um, I was searching for you?" It sounded more like a question, even to herself.

"Oh, I can understand that you want to see my glorious form more often, Greengrass." Scowling she hit his arm.

"Not like this, you Prat." _Ok, something is up._ "It's just... Um..." This behavior wasn't like Daphne at all.

"Yes, what is it? Tell me."

"Umm, next week is a Hogsmeade-weekend, and I, um, wantedtoaskyouifyoucouldcomewithme?" _Wait, what?_ He had to translate her jabbering first, then a teasing grin spread over his face. Daphne groaned.

"Did I hear that correctly? You want me to come with me next weekend, so that you can kidnap me and have your way with me?"

"Is that a 'yes'?", asked the blonde hopefully, ignoring his earlier questions.

"You can bet it is!" She squealed, hugged him and realized what she had done. A very red Daphne wished him a good day and fled, mortified. She loved teasing, but wasn't really used to physical contact with a boy!

 _Hmm, she was blushing, is that a point for me? It wasn't something I did, though..._ He would just give himself the point, he was generous like that. _It's 3 – 1, I'm closing up!_

* * *

This night Harry had a strange dream. He was in a dark forest, but it wasn't like the one next to Hogwarts. The trees had no leaves – none of them -, the ground was completely bare, no bushes or stones. There was a thick mist in the air, the silvery clouds hung in the branches and on the ground. The boy shouldn't be able to see _anything_ but he was able to spot a small, narrow path that lead him trough the creepy environment. Harry was tense - he had no wand - scanning for an ambush. He didn't know why there should be one, but he had a distinct feeling. The distance between the trees widened, he came to a clearing.

In the middle of it was a table, completely made of stone. It looked like an altar you could see in church or something. On top of the table was a blood red cushion, which presented a strange gem. It wasn't like something Harry had ever seen before. It was pitch black, seemed to absorb the light around it. In addition, if you looked right next to it, you could see that the air was flickering, like the air over a big campfire.

The boy didn't know why, but he had to reach it. Slowly, still searching for enemies, he made his way over. The path he walked on, before only gravel and dirt, became smoothed stone. As he looked down, he realized that it was a giant mosaic. There were people on it, fighting. A part of him wanted to see the whole story, but a bigger part wanted him to grab the stone.

Ten meters.

Five.

Three. He nearly had it!

One.

As he reached for it, there was suddenly a cold feeling in his gut. Surprised, he looked down, only to give a startled yell. The tip of a sword emerged from him. Someone had stabbed him from behind!

He woke up with a gasp, heart beating frantically. After some minutes, he had calmed down enough to think. _Ok, that was strange._ He had a feeling that this was very important, but he didn't know why.

He tried to sleep again, but it was in vain. Grumbling about no-good-dreams he silently dressed and made his way downstairs.

* * *

It was an unusual sight: The Dark Lord Voldemort, surrounded by books, sipping on some strange potion, deep in the night.

The magic his foe used, was old _very_ old, that much he had realized after a short time. He was readin trough books from Salazar Slytherin himself at the moment. The founder was powerful and well-educated, so he should give at least _some_ answers.

There! The silence was disturbed by a strange sound, a mix of a hiss and a chuckle.

"'The Lord of Life', huh? Interesting..." There wasnt much, but at least Slytherin listed some weaknesses of the strange mist and his owner.

"The next time you dare to oppose me, wizard, you will DIE!" This time a high pitched, maniacal laugh filled the room and the manor, waking some of his followers and made the ones already awake shivering in dread.

* * *

As Harry made his way trough the dark halls, he marveled again at the silence. The boy didn't know why, but he loved the complete absence of sound. The paintings were sleeping, but most of them were lightly snoring. Still, it was pretty silent. Harrys destination was – of course – the Room of Requirement. When sleeping wasn't an option, he could at least _use_ the time. As he came to the wall housing the room, he stopped.

There was already a door!

 _Who is in there? And what is this person doing?_ Curious, Harry decided to investigate. The room was full of stuff. Some of it broken, other things in prime condition. Endless rows of shelves, all packed full with something. Harry gave a silent curse. _How should I find somebody in here?_ It didnt matter, he had to find this person. He couldn't train as long as somebody was already there _and_ it was pretty late, so nobody _should_ be there. Suddenly he remembered his run-in the other night. _The same person? Not the twins, planning for a prank then..._ Slowly Harry made his way trough the endless rows. He could hear someone cursing! He crawled around the shelf. There! Direct next to an old cabinet stood somebody. The figure wore black robes, he couldn't see it's face.

Who _is this?_

* * *

 **AN: Aaaand cut! Tell me if this chapter was an improvement! And if it wasn't, tell me how the stuff with the Betas works...**


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